


The Laundry Chronicles

by Alluraallie



Category: K-pop, Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Bad Poetry, Boys In Love, Changlix is too soft, Fluff, Jisung and Hyunjin hate each other in the beginning, M/M, Making Out, RA chan, Rich and Popular Hwang Hyunjin, Shifting Character Perspective, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, bad dancing to twice songs, because Hyunjin is an angsty boy, but don't worry IT ALL WORKS OUT, cameos from your fav NCT and Ateez members, high school student jeongin, in america because I don't know how Korean college works, pretend I know how music production works, this is super cheesy I'm sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2020-10-18 22:02:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20646368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alluraallie/pseuds/Alluraallie
Summary: Felix is a freshman starting college at a school far from his home. He knows nobody and he definitely doesn't know how to do laundry. When he sees a cute boy in the laundry room watching and laughing at him, he thinks he's messed up his chances at getting a boyfriend for good.Seungmin is over his crush from high school. Hwang Hyunjin was rich, popular, and partied every weekend. They were complete opposites, they would've never worked out. College is his chance to start fresh, that is until he gets a text from said crush inviting him to his first college party. Well...one night couldn't hurt.Jisung was pissed. Hwang Hyunjin had crossed the line for the last time. He was tired, angry, and had a massive hangover. It was time to give Hyunjin a piece of his mind. When he knocked on his door, he was surprised to be met with an unfamiliar face. Hyunjin failed to mention his roommate, Minho, was hot.





	1. Lee Felix and the Great Laundry Debacle

**Author's Note:**

> Felix's story in the beginning is based on true events that led to me meeting my best friends in college!
> 
> Thank you so much to Liz for proofreading and writing some of this chapter. You're a gem!
> 
> Enjoy!

“And Felix- one more thing” Felix sighed heavily at the tone in his mother’s voice.

This particular sigh was not out of frustration or annoyance; rather, it was the opposite. He and his mother were incredibly close to each other, so he knew from her intonation that he would have to hang up soon. 

He quickly glanced down at his phone to see that the call ran on for almost twenty minutes. Twenty minutes didn’t feel like a very long time on this late Friday afternoon. He was sitting outside under a large tree near his new home, and the weather was absolutely beautiful. This conversation was the first phone call with his mother since she finished moving him into his college dorm the day before. 

Felix considered his mother to be his best friend. On a typical day, he would call her at least three times, and constantly text back and forth; however, this Friday afternoon was different. His mother made a vow to him that she would not call him until she knew that she would not cry while they were talking. For most of the day, they had only texted back and forth. 

“Make sure you do your laundry, okay?” His mother’s voice slightly cracked as she completed her thoughts. Felix knew this tone- she was definitely on the verge of tears. 

Doing laundry had always been an inside joke between Felix and his mother. Years ago when Felix entered high school, he wanted to learn how to be independent, so he thought he could start by doing his own laundry. One day after school he excitedly recited the steps in his head that his mother followed every time she did laundry. The cycle ended about an hour and a half later and he even decided to fold his clothes. It wasn’t until he picked up his favorite shirt from the hamper that he realized he made a big mistake: he shrunk all of his clothes. Once his mother came home, they had a major laughing fit; ultimately, they decided that it would be best if Felix no longer did laundry. 

She made a noise that sounded half like a laugh, half like a sob, but before she could actually say anything, he interrupted her: “I promise I won’t shrink them this time.” He forcefully laughed at his own expense. 

“But please don’t cry, Mom. You’re going to make me cry. I’ll talk to you later tonight, okay?” He inhaled deeply to stop his own voice from breaking over the sadness.

She half heartedly laughed as well, but paused a moment before speaking once more: “I am so proud of you, honey. Please enjoy yourself and take advantage of all the good things that life offers you. I love you.”

“I love you too.” He wanted to say more. He wanted to tell her that he missed her and he didn’t know what he would do without her there. He wanted to drive his car five hours home and be back in the comfort of his room… but he didn’t- he quickly tapped the red button to end the call. He heavily breathed in as the tears lightly shed from his eyes. 

Felix’s decision to move five hours away from his hometown was an important yet heartbreaking decision. He did not want to leave his mother and she did not want him to leave either; however, they both knew that it was Felix’s calling to become a professional dancer. From the minute he entered this world, dancing had always been his ultimate passion. He considered every possible option that would keep him close to home, but he and his mother knew that the best option was the school that was far away. 

Not a single soul from his hometown decided to make the trek to Young Wings University with him, so Felix was left to enter this new journey alone… well, he and his stuffed animal.

He thought about the possibility of making new friends in a new environment. He was incredibly excited, but nervous. His roommate Seungmin seemed nice enough so far. Seungmin moved into the dorm earlier in the day, rather than yesterday, so he had been finishing getting his stuff together as Felix sat outside on the phone. Seungmin’s parents dropped him off, but he decided to do all of the unpacking himself- Felix concluded that he must not have lived too far away from campus. 

The word “campus” brought more butterflies to Felix’s stomach. He looked at his surroundings outside, and he was pleasantly overwhelmed by the scene before him. In a beautifully hand-crafted font, the name “Yellow Wood Hall” was sprawled creatively on a banner outside of his new home. His eyes scanned the height of the building and counted eight floors up from the main entrance. One of the most exciting things about this college campus was that it almost felt like the buildings were pulled directly from a history book: all the buildings were brick. 

Felix could see the window of his room from the front of the dorm building: third floor, room 25. For some reason, all of the rooms in this building had a 0 in front of them. A room on the eighth floor would be something like 0801, the fourth floor 0404; his room number ended up being 0325. When his mother asked the person working the front desk, they simply responded “that’s just the way it is.” 

As he thought about his room, he realized that he should probably head upstairs with his roommate rather than stay outside by himself. His mind replayed the message that his mother said before he ended the call. Even though he was nervous, he had to make the most out of every good opportunity that came his way. Felix never took anything that his mother said lightly. She was a small woman, but she was wise beyond her years. He knew that he needed to take a step of courage and try to build a connection with Seungmin. 

Felix was successfully able to navigate himself back to the elevator in his building. He felt a small boost of confidence as the elevator door opened on the third floor and he saw room 25 at the end of the hall. He exited the elevator with a quick stride until he heard something that struck a nerve in his brain. A familiar beat was coming from one of the rooms, but he couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. 

As he went further down the hall, he recognized the song as Somehow by Day6, one of his favorite Korean bands. He became super excited at the prospect of someone else in his dorm liking the same music as him, so he sped faster down the hall. When he got to the room the music was coming from, he was shocked- it was none other than Room 0325.

All of his nervousness left him and he burst through the door, yelling a little louder than necessary, “You know Day6?!” Seungmin stood there looking at Felix with a wide-eyed expression, then suddenly threw the shirt that he was folding on the ground and yelled back just as loudly, “Of course! They’re my favorite group of all time!”

“No way bro, that’s so cool! What’s your favorite song, member, album? Personally I’m a huge Jae fan and have been since debut, but Wonpil has really been getting me with his vocals on Time of Our Lives lately…” Felix continued on his tangent as he shut the door behind him. People were starting to give them weird looks in the hallway.

“Well..” Seungmin starts, “I can’t really pick favorites because they’re all equal in my heart, but I do have a bit of a soft spot for Wonpil. People have even told me I look like him a little, but I don’t really see it.”

“No way! Oh my god, I totally see that! Do you need help unpacking anything? You looked like you were in the middle of something before I so rudely interrupted you,” Felix chuckled. 

Seungmin hummed thoughtfully, “Well you definitely don’t have to, but if you do I hope you know that we’re blasting Day6 the entire time.”

“Now that’s a deal I can’t refuse.”

After folding most of Seungmin’s clothes together and singing through at least a dozen Day6 songs, there was a loud bang on their door in the middle of their passionate, soulful rendition of I Loved You. 

Seungmin immediately turned the music down and whisper-yelled, “Oh no, what if that’s the RA with a noise complaint?

Felix wore a mildly perplexed look on his face. “So? We turn the music down and say we won’t do it again. What’s the worst they could do? School hasn’t even started yet.”

Seungmin suddenly had a fearful look in his eyes. “Wait you haven’t heard? Everyone knows Chan is the strictest RA on campus. I heard he once yelled at a freshman at midnight because she made popcorn in the microwave and the beeping woke him up. Apparently, she was so terrified no one ever heard a peep from that room again, not even in the daytime.”

“Oh man, are you serious? We’re totally screwed. I did not want to start out my college career with the RA hating my guts,” Felix exclaimed, now with the same fearful look on his face.

The loud banging started again.

Well, certainly waiting any longer would only make it worse, so Felix decided, here goes nothing.

Felix opened the door and immediately started rambling, “We are so so sorry, I realize it’s getting late and we probably disturbed the whole floor and more importantly you, please have mercy-”

Chan urgently raised his hand up and Felix immediately fell silent.

“Were you listening to I Loved You by Day6? One of the best songs in Day6’s entire discography? Off of one of the best albums of this generation, Moonrise?”

Felix stood with his mouth agape. He had no idea how to respond to the excitement in Chan’s voice. 

“Well personally I think Remember Us really outdid their previous-” Seungmin sheepishly interjected.

“Seungmin, be quiet!” Felix frantically shouted, “Yes, why?”

The RA sighs happily, “I thought I was the only MyDay in this entire school. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Chan, your RA. I’m a junior.”

“Nice to meet you Chan! I’m Felix! I’m a freshman,” he held out his hand for a handshake which Chan returned warmly.

“And I’m Seungmin. Sorry, I get a little carried away when it comes to Day6.”

“Don’t worry about it. Do you guys need help unpacking or anything?”

Seungmin responded, “We’re actually almost done, but do you want to come in anyway?”

Chan smiled and his whole demeanor changed. He looked so kind and almost cuddly. Felix decided it was a good look on him. “I’d be glad to.”

After a couple hours of crazy dancing and more screaming than singing, Chan bid them goodnight.

“I hope you have a great first week guys! Let me know if you need anything.”

“Thanks Chan, have a good night,” Felix smiled back and waved.

Seungmin looked at Felix after he closed the door and they opened their mouths at the same time, “I can’t believe that just happened!” they said while laughing.

\--  
“Alright, so that’s everything?” Felix asked in astonishment. 

He dramatically jumped onto his bed and stared intently at the finished product of his shared room. He was super content with the results of their efforts- well mostly his mother’s and Seungmin’s. Felix certainly did not have an artistic eye for decorating, but the way the two sides of the room came together made everything look simplistic but home-y. Felix’s mother insisted on taping a collage of pictures around his bed. At first he was embarrassed, but it turned out that Seungmin did the same thing as well. Even though the boys did not talk much before moving in together, their styles meshed well.

Seungmin followed Felix’s action and jumped onto his bed as well “I think so, I just have some stuff to throw away and maybe some more clothes to hang up, but other than that I’m good. What about you?”

Felix huffed as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, but decided to ignore it for now. “Yeah, I think I’m basically done too? I mean I have to go shopping for some stuff, but I think that’s about it.” 

Seungmin nodded in acknowledgement as he pulled out his own phone from his pocket: “Sorry, I just got a text from my friend Jisung. He invited me to hang out with him tonight, and I was wondering if you wanted to come too?” A look of hope and excitement spread across Seungmin’s face as he lightly threw his phone onto his bed. 

“Sure, that would be awesome!” Felix smiled with a true sense of sincerity. 

One of Felix’s biggest fears for college was making friends. It wasn’t that Felix was shy, he could definitely hold a conversation better than most people, and it wasn’t that he didn’t have friends- he had many friends; his issue was that he never had “close” friends. Back in his hometown he knew everyone, but no one really knew him. Every friendship was surface level, but he longed to make deeper connections. No one knew him better than his mother, but he realized that he needed someone close while he wasn’t at home, so he decided that he would make an active effort to make close friends this year. 

The boys began to think about the possibilities of what they could do for the night, but once again, Felix felt a vibration in his pocket. He sighed as he pulled out his phone and saw that he had two messages from his mother. 

Mom: I know that I reminded you to do your laundry earlier, but all jokes aside, I wanted to tell you that your insane suitcase with the mountain of dirty clothes is under your bed. You’re not sneaky enough for me- I know you too well. I don’t know how you’re going to fit all that stuff in your room, but good luck. Make sure you get that done as soon as possible!

Mom: I love you and have a great night!!!

Felix’s heart sank as he read through the text- that was the one thing that he totally forgot about. One of Felix’s favorite things is clothes, so his wardrobe is a little extensive for the typical college student. He spent copious hours packing everything from his closet and his dresser, but in the rush of getting things together, he forgot one important detail: the clothes under his bed. Felix had a habit of shoving dirty clothes under his bed when his mother told him to clean his room, so during the weeks leading up to college move-in, he shoved lots of his clothes under his bed to make room for the boxes he was packing. 

When the day arrived when he had to leave for school, he realized that he made a big mistake: there was an actual monster living under his bed… well, enough clothes to be the size of a monster. In all the rushing for school, he forgot about the clothes. In a state of panic he scrambled around his house to find something to shove his clothes in. He grabbed a random suitcase from his mother’s room and shoveled everything in it before he had to leave. His intention was to do the laundry at school and not tell his mother about his “cleaning habits”; however, she must have realized what happened while she was helping him unpack. 

“You good, Felix? You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.” Seungmin laughed as he stared with a slightly concerned look at Felix. 

“Yikes, Seungmin, I don’t think I can hang out tonight” Felix groaned as he slowly pulled himself off his bed.

“Wait what? Why not?” Seungmin disappointedly asked.

Felix crouched down to look under his bed, and sure enough, there was the suitcase. 

“Dude, that’s the biggest suitcase I’ve ever seen” Seungmin noted as he hopped down from his bed and crouched down next to his roommate. 

Felix begrudgingly unzipped the outer zipper, and clothes immediately began to spill out of the suitcase. 

“This is why I can’t go.” Felix motioned to the mess before him as the clothes completely spilled out onto the floor. 

“I forgot I have to do all of this.”

Seungmin lightly chuckled, “Yeah, you definitely need to take care of that” 

Seungmin paused for a moment, and then his eyes lit up with excitement “Hey, why don’t I invite Jisung to hang out here and then we can explore around the dorm, do your laundry, and order take out? I’m super exhausted anyways and I think it might be cool to see what’s going on around here, ya know?” 

Felix was surprised and moved by Seungmin’s offer, “You seriously don’t have to do that. Honestly, go out and have fun with your friend. I can join you guys tomorrow or something.” He assured, waving him away.

“No way! Apparently we’re some of the only MyDays on this campus, so we gotta stick together. I want to explore around here anyways,” Seungmin smiled genuinely at Felix. 

\--  
Felix used to thank his lucky stars for not having to do laundry when he was growing up. It became a routine for Felix to clean the kitchen and living room for his mother if she did all the laundry. It was a great system that worked as long as high school lasted; yet at this moment, he began to curse his stroke of “luck”. 

About fifteen minutes had passed since Seungmin left to pick up his friend, and Felix finally had everything ready to do his laundry. He probably could have started a bit sooner if he hadn’t forgotten something every time he returned to the laundry room. The first time, he successfully brought down his monster load of clothes, but he realized that he left his phone in his room, so he had to go back upstairs. The second time, he forgot the detergent and fabric softener. Then as he loaded his clothes into the washer, he realized he needed money for the machine.

As Felix entered the laundry room for the final time, he piled all of his belongings together and made sure everything was there. He motioned a fist bump to himself in the air and began to analyze the buttons on the washer. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a muffled coughing sound coming from the back corner of the room. 

Felix already heard many stories about his new school being haunted, but it couldn’t actually be true, could it? With a small burst of bravery, Felix slowly turned his head toward the direction of the sound to see where it was coming from. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a figure in all black and his body became rigid thinking about what it could be.

Okay, Felix, he thought to himself, Just quickly turn all the way around and get it over with. The dorm that he was living in couldn’t be the place where a ghost lurks, right?

He took a deep breath and forced himself to look all the way back, and to his surprise (and relief), another person was in the room with him. A guy that looked about his age was sitting on the back windowsill with his laptop and headphones in.

He silently sighed to ease his rapid heart rate- no ghosts. Felix lightly shook his head at himself and once more looked at the washing machine in front of him and read the buttons. Whites, colors, hand wash, cotton… “why are there so many options?” he thought. Actually, he may have said it out loud because he heard a sudden snicker coming from the corner of the room. 

He turned around in time to see the guy with the laptop hiding his smile behind his hand. Now that he was looking up, Felix got a better look at his face. Dark hair and eyes, a sharp jawline, and when the guy moved his hand, a pair of full, pink lips. Of course the guy had to be cute, like really cute. In fact, Felix didn’t think he’d seen someone that attractive since middle school when he’d fallen for that hot senior named Yugyeom. 

The boy must’ve felt Felix’s stare because suddenly he looked up and they met eyes. Felix quickly and naturally (not naturally at all) shifted his gaze back to the washing machine. He pushed a random button and unscrewed the lid on his detergent. 

How much detergent goes in the washer again? Oh man, he thought to himself. He really had no idea what he was doing. 

I guess I’ll just pour until it looks like enough? His eyebrows furrowed in concentration and confusion. He scanned the back of the room to make sure that the mystery boy wasn’t looking- luckily he was distracted by his computer once again. Felix picked up the jug and started pouring a generous amount over all of his clothes in the washer.

An unexpectedly loud outburst came from the corner of the room, “Uhh, I think that’s enough! For like two or three loads even,” the laptop boy exclaimed. 

Felix turned around and froze, not quite sure what to say in his embarrassment. The laptop boy’s eyes were widened with concern. He paused with his mouth open for a second, as if he was conflicted about saying more, but ultimately, the dark haired boy spoke again, in a significantly softer tone, “Ah sorry...I just didn’t want you to ruin your clothes.”

Felix tried to suppress the blush that was spreading across his face but failed miserably, “You’re okay. Honestly, I don’t really know what I’m doing, so I appreciate the help,” he said, as he tried to play off the embarrassment with a bright smile. 

As soon as Felix smiled, the laptop boy let out a noise that sounded kind of like a strangled squeak. Felix turned back around quickly, hoping there wasn’t something weird on his face. That sound did come from the boy and not the washing machine right? All he really needs is to go down in history as the freshman who broke the washing machine on move-in day. A few minutes later, he looked out of the corner of his eye only to see dark-haired boy looking down intently at his laptop, now with his hood over his head. And oh no, he has sweater paws.

Felix panicked for a moment. Normally when he had boy problems he would text his mother, but this time it is different: this is a college boy. Who could Felix text about his heartache? He frantically whipped out his phone and opened up Seungmin’s contact.

Felix: SEUNGMIN I NEED YOUR HELP

Seungmin: What could you possibly need help with? I’ve been gone for less than 30 minutes.

Seungmin: Please don’t tell me you’ve flooded the laundry room.

Felix: NO WORSE theresacuteboyhereandidontknowwhattodo

Felix: I’ve already severely embarrassed myself twice

Seungmin: And what am I supposed to do about that?

Felix: Idk but he has sweater paws. I think I’m malfunctioning

Felix shoved his phone back in his pocket and turned his attention to the washing machine. His eyes quickly scanned all of the buttons until he found the green button and pressed start. Now, the waiting game. While thinking about what to do in the meantime, Felix suddenly remembered he downloaded PUBG on his phone before he left for college. Time to level up his shooting skills. 

As the game loaded up (and Felix danced to the menu music), the faint sound of a raspy voice abruptly rang through the quiet laundry room. Felix scanned the room until he found the source of the sound: the laptop. It turned out that the boy’s headphones had become unplugged and whatever he was listening to was echoing throughout the room. For a moment, Felix tried to figure out what song the boy was playing without seeming like a creep. He was fascinated- the beat was something that he had never heard before, but he really enjoyed it. Felix became lost in the song for a moment until the boy seemed to notice Felix staring at him and looked up.

Felix tried to make a smooth recovery by pointing to his ear and then at the laundry boy’s laptop, hoping to get the message across. The boy in the hoodie swiftly grabbed the cord and plugged it back in and Felix flashed him a thumbs up. He saw the beginnings of a light flush spread across his cheeks.

So cute, Felix thought. He speedily clicked again on Seungmin’s name in his phone.

Felix: SEUNGMIN he accidently unplugged his headphones and whatever he was listening to on his computer started playing and now he’s blushing and he’s really really cute and HELP PLEASE

Seungmin: Idk what you want me to say.

Seungmin: Write your romantic musings in a poem, I’m sure that’ll get your point across.

Felix lightly rolled his eyes at his roommate’s response. Does Seungmin not understand what it’s like to have a boy crisis? Classes haven’t even started and there’s already a cute boy. The title of my love life should be Unrequited Love in a Laundry Room. Chapter One, ‘Oh how my heart burns with desire, like the heat from the dryer.’” 

He laughed to himself at the notion of actually writing a poem. If Felix wrote the poem, he could have a good laugh with his new roommate…

He knew what he had to do. 

Felix: THANKS SEUNGMIN I’M ON IT

Seungmin: I was literally just joking...you know what? Nvm

Seungmin: I’ll be back soon.

Felix glanced over at the boy. He seemed to be completely occupied by whatever he was doing on his computer. Okay, how do you write a poem? Well first, he needs paper and something to write with. Shit. I guess that means another trip upstairs. He’s going to be well-acquainted with the interior of the elevator by the time this whole laundry ordeal is over. The machine only had two minutes left before his clothes were done. Oh well, he’ll trust laundry boy not to steal them and even if he did, he’ll know who did it. He couldn’t get away that easily.

He swiftly made his way to the elevator and to Room 0325 to get supplies from his backpack and spew out his feelings in poetic form. He sat down at his desk and contemplated how to start. Well, he thought, I guess this is as good a start as any:

Dear Laundry Boy,

As time went by,  
I looked into your eyes,  
And I knew you were the one, Laundry Boy.

Working on your computer,  
I didn’t know if you could get any cuter.  
Laundry Boy, I’m glad you have a sense of humor.

Burning with desire,  
Like the heat from the dryer,  
Forever and always I admire.

Love,  
Too Much Detergent Boy

When the poem was finished, Felix admired his handiwork. Seungmin is going to lose his mind when he reads this, he chuckled internally. Felix then realized he had probably spent a little more time in his room than he should’ve. His laundry was probably long done by now. He rushed down the hall and took the stairs two at a time down to the laundry room. 

When he arrived, the first thing he noticed was that laundry boy was gone. There goes that tragically short love story. He was insanely beautiful too. I guess that’s what he gets for not being bold enough to get his number. He transferred his ball of sopping wet clothes to the dryer. One load down, one more to go. Thank goodness these washers are big, or else he’d have been here all night. His phone lit up with a text from Seungmin.

Seungmin: Jisung and I are walking inside now. You better be hungry because we got A LOT of food.

Felix: I’m still in the laundry room

Seungmin: Come up to the room and eat while your clothes dry.

Felix: I’ll be up in a couple minutes. If my laundry gets stolen, I’m blaming you

Felix made his way over to the elevator (he might go down the stairs, but damn it he’s not going back up). He walked down the hall and hears the faint sound of For me by Day6 playing. He burst into the room excitedly, “Seungmin! This is my favorite song off-” Felix abruptly paused because standing right in front of him is laundry boy, in all his dark eyed, sweater pawed, black hooded glory. 

“Hey Felix, this is Jisung…” Seungmin gestured to a boy with a round face, purple sweater, and a friendly smile, “And this is Changbin, Jisung’s roommate,” then gesturing to the beautiful man standing to his right. “I hope it’s fine that I invited him, he was stuck doing homework last minute and I didn’t think you’d mind if there...” Felix’s mind short-circuited at that point, and the only consolation was that laundry boy (Changbin, his last brain cell helpfully supplied) looked to be no better off.

“Uhh I have to go put my clothes in the dryer, sorry! I’ll be right back,” Felix interrupted. The last thing he saw before he left was the confused look on Seungmin’s face.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t the smoothest exit he could’ve made. In his defense, that was probably one of the biggest shocks of his life.

Felix: Seungmin I can’t believe you’d do this to me

Seungmin: Felix what the hell was that? And what are you talking about?

Felix: THATS THE BOY

Seungmin: What boy?

Felix: The one I was literally texting you about 10 min ago!!!

Seungmin: Oooohhh that boy. Well now you’ll actually have a chance to talk to him if you stop hiding in the laundry room.

Felix: You don’t understand. I’ve already royally embarrassed myself. He probably thinks I’m an idiot. I thought I wouldn’t see him again anyway, so it wouldn’t matter

Seungmin: Felix, in your defense, he looks to be more of a mess than you are. Jisung’s been trying to talk to him since you left, but I think he’s catatonic.

Why is Changbin freaking out? He wasn’t the one dealing with a hopeless crush. Even so, Felix couldn’t ignore the small possibility that Changbin might think he’s cute too. Who is he kidding though, he’s probably just still embarrassed over the headphone situation.

Seungmin: Come back up. You’ll be fine I promise. I’ll cover for you.

Felix: 😓 alright… I’m coming

Despite telling Seungmin that he was coming, he couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. As he walked out of the room, he turned to his left and saw his reflection in the dryer. Might as well give himself a little pep talk.

“C’mon Felix, you can do this. This is your chance to start over and make a good impression. So what if he has sweater paws? You can still speak to him like any other person you’ve met.”

Alright, he’s got this. He took the elevator up and tried to ignore the pounding in his chest when he got to the door. He knocked once and Seungmin answered the door.

“Hey Felix! Welcome back,” Seungmin said cheerfully. He showed him inside where Jisung and Changbin were waiting.

“Hey, it’s nice to meet you man! I’m Jisung,” the purple sweater clad boy exclaimed holding out his hand. Felix returned his warm smile and said, “Nice to meet you, I’m Felix.”

“Changbin,” the other boy murmured, the trace of a smile on his lips.

“I’m Felix. It’s nice to meet you, though I think we might’ve met unofficially a little earlier,” Felix mumbled low enough so that the others couldn’t hear and returned the smile. They made eye contact for the second time that night. Felix held out his hand and Changbin took it. When he took his hand back and it still tingled from the warmth of the other, he knew he was screwed.

“Sorry about running out on you guys. I was just down there and forgot to transfer to my clothes to the dryer,” he admitted halfheartedly, a hand coming up to rub the back of his neck.

“No worries, except now that we’ve waited this long I’m starving,” Jisung groaned. “Can we eat now?” he pleaded looking to Seungmin.

“Yes,” Seungmin sighed exasperatedly. 

When Seungmin brought the food out, Felix was astounded to see a bunch of Korean dishes. All of his favorites were there: jokbal, seomyeopsal, bulgogi, kimchi and so many more things he would have never imagined eating in college unless he was brave enough to make it himself.

At the look of pure astonishment on Felix’s face, Seungmin responded a bit sheepishly, “I thought we were all kind of missing home a little.”

“This is incredible, I’m so freakin’ excited to stuff my face!” Jisung shouted. 

“Everyone dig in!”

\--

When everyone had slowed down eating (and Felix left to collect his laundry in between), they all gathered in a circle on the carpeted floor (although the carpeting didn’t make it any more comfortable Felix might add), legs crossed, and stomachs full. Jisung let out a groan of contentment.

“So what’s everyone majoring in? Changbin and I are in music production,” Jisung brought up rather proudly. 

“Really? That’s so cool! I’m a dance major,” Felix replied looking at both Jisung and Changbin. His gaze lingered on Changbin a little longer unconsciously. Changbin met his eyes and Felix quickly averted his eyes. “What part of the production process do you guys work on?”

“I’m mostly a lyricist, but Changbin is really good at production stuff. He’s been working on a track that sounds incredible so far!” Jisung shouts excitedly moving his hands about wildly to emphasize his point.

Oh, I wonder if that’s what I heard earlier in the laundry room? Felix thought. If so, this guy’s no joke. He’s really good.

“Thanks Sung. It’s not even close to done yet though. I still have to layer it with something so it doesn’t sound so dull,” Changbin states rather self-critically, though there’s still a smile playing at the corner of his lips.

“Well not that any of you music nerds care, but I’m an English education major,” Seungmin replies sarcastically, but Felix could detect a hint of seriousness to his words.

“What are you talking about Seungmin? Teaching English is such a cool major! You can go anywhere and you’ll be helping people learn one of the major languages in the world,” Felix adamantly assured him.

Seungmin looked back at him with a warm smile on his face, one that made his eyes crinkle at the corners, “Thanks Felix.”

After a pause, he continued, “Anyway, I hate to cut this soiree short, but it’s getting late and we all have class tomorrow, Seungmin chided, checking his phone. “Jeez Jisung, I brought you here at 10 and it’s already 1 in the morning. Let me just take the trash out and then I’ll get you guys home.”

Jisung rolled his eyes at the word soiree while mouthing English majors at Changbin and Felix before standing up. “Nah man, I’ll take care of it. It’s the least I could do for driving me.”

Seungmin happily handed the garbage to Jisung and directed him down the hall where the trash chute was. 

“By the way, do you guys have a bathroom I could use?” Changbin inquired. “Seungmin gestured down the hall in the same direction as Jisung. “There’s a communal bathroom a little before the trash chute on your right.”

“Thanks. Man, you guys have bad luck. We have a bathroom connected to our room.”

“Not all of us can live in luxury, Changbin,” Felix mused exaggeratedly. Changbin let out a light-hearted chuckle in response before heading out the door. As soon as the door shut, Seungmin made his attack.

“Sooo Felix, what was that about? Your Laundry Boy is Changbin?”

“Shh! He might still be able to hear you,” Felix whisper-yelled.

“Oh, don’t give me that. To be honest I’m not that big of a fan of him, but he’s Jisung’s best friend, so I make an exception to hang out once in a while.”

“What do you mean? He seemed perfectly normal to me,” Felix said quizzically.

“Oh you just wait until he gets annoying. He was surprisingly quiet and tolerable tonight. He was looking at you a lot, you know? He’d sneak glances when you weren’t looking,” Seungmin supplied with a smirk.

“Stop! Don’t give me false hope. Ugh I can’t believe I actually wrote that poem. I thought I’d never see him again!” Felix put his head in his hands.

“Wait, you actually wrote it?! No way, let me see!” Seungmin exclaimed.

Felix went over to his desk drawer and retrieved the poem. He sighed heavily before handing it to Seungmin.

“Burning with desire like the heat from the dryer?” Seungmin scanned over the poem and gave Felix an unimpressed look. “Really Felix? I’m the English major and I could never come up with something as tacky as that.”

“Hey, it’s supposed to be cheesy!” Felix defended. He took the poem from Seungmin’s hands and put it back in his desk. “I’m going to take a shower.” He grabbed his shower caddy and walked down the hall of the place he now called home. He saw Jisung and Changbin walking down the hall back towards his room.

“It was so nice to meet you guys. I’m heading to get a shower, but hopefully I’ll see you guys in the future?” 

“For sure man! We’ll be around,” Jisung replied.

“And Changbin, I’d love to hear some of that song Jisung was talking about,” Felix mentioned mustering all his confidence. The five seconds he heard in the laundry room was more than enough to convince him that Jisung wasn’t exaggerating.

“Sure,” Changbin smiled knowingly, “When you decide to show me one of your dance routines.”

“Oh no, you don’t want to see me dance. I’m not all that good.” Felix waved his hands in front of his face.

“I’m 1000% sure that’s not true,” Changbin put his hand on Felix’s arm reassuringly before all the words left Felix’s mouth.

Felix looked down sheepishly, “T-thanks.”

All of a sudden, Changbin looked down and seemed to register he was touching someone he just met and mumbled a quick “Sorry.” Although he apologized, his hand remained on Felix’s arm. If Felix thought he was short-circuiting before, he definitely was now. He snapped out of it when he made eye contact with Jisung’s shell-shocked face peeking out from behind Changbin’s shoulder. 

“I should really go get a shower, it’s getting kind of late,” Felix murmured half-heartedly accompanied with an awkward laugh.

His words seemed to break whatever weird freeze frame they were stuck in. Changbin released him arm, but not before letting his hand trail down Felix’s arm to his hand before contact was completely lost. Felix felt his breath stop for a moment as he met eyes with Changbin for a split second… until he remembered that Jisung was standing right with them. 

“Yeah, of course. I’ll see you around Felix,” Changbin hurriedly replied, redness blooming across his face before turning on his heel and speed-walking back down the hall.

Jisung looked between the two boys and shook his head, as if shaking himself out of a trance before yelling, “Yeah, see you around man!” as he jogged to catch up with Changbin.

Felix waited until they were out of sight before running into a bathroom stall and locking the latch behind him. He took a deep breath. It’s okay. If he wanted to, he could just be friends with this guy. No romantic feelings whatsoever. A guy would just be a distraction from his classes...and adjusting to college life and other things that he couldn’t think of at the moment. Not to mention, Changbin probably thinks he’s strange.

Who was he kidding? This is going to be way harder than he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first fic, so any feedback at all is appreciated. Let me know your thoughts!  
Tell me how much it sucked if you want lol
> 
> This chapter is probably a bit longer than what they usually will be because setting the scene and all that
> 
> Come yell at me on Twitter about anything! @whynothavefun16


	2. Hyunjin's Roommate Struggle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! This fic is going to have changing POVs between three different characters throughout. This one is from Hyunjin's perspective! Enjoy!
> 
> Huge shoutout to Liz for editing this and putting up with all my crap lol

Hyunjin thought college was going pretty good so far. He met a bunch of new people this week, all his classes didn’t seem horrible, and the campus was beautiful. He slung his bag that held his practice clothes over his shoulder and walked out of one of the many all white dance practice rooms that were in the dance building. He wandered to the end of the hall until he found the exit and pushed the lever, walking out into the humid and warm evening air. 

As he made the twenty minute trek back to his dorm (TMT Hall he reminded himself, so he wouldn’t pass it like he did the last two times), he went over all his class work. 

_ Liberal Arts homework was Chapter 1 problems, but that’s not due until next Wednesday. History didn’t give any homework yet, Music Theory didn’t have any homework either, but we have to start thinking about the type of music we’re writing our final essay on, so in other words I’m not thinking about it until the last week of class. And oh yes, the one I care about: Choreography. The homework is to have a minute long dance prepared to introduce our style and personality to the class. This one will be fun. I think I’ll throw some hip hop elements in there...maybe I’ll even ask my roommate for some advice _. 

Oh yeah, the one small issue he’d been having since moving to Young Wings University: his roommate Minho. The issue may not be one most people have, after all his roommate is nice, clean, and quiet. Hyunjin just didn’t know how to talk to him. That in itself was already weird enough because Hyunjin could talk to just about anybody. With him being a dance major as well, he’d thought they’d be able to find common ground. Minho seemed really closed off; he’d talk very casually with Hyunjin, but if the conversation became any deeper than surface-level, he’d suddenly cut it off or say something bizarre. In fact, when Hyunjin thought about it, he didn’t really know anything about Minho and they’d been living together for a week: not his hometown, workplace, or anything about his family. 

_ Wasn’t your college roommate supposed to be your unlikely best friend who you confide in at like two A.M. because you missed your mom? That’s what it always seemed like in the movies anyway _. 

Hyunjin would usually just ignore a situation like this and wait for Minho to decide he wants to be a normal human and hold a conversation, but the thing is- Minho is really cool. He happened to catch Minho dancing in one of the practice rooms next door to his a couple days ago and Hyunjin had never seen someone so fluid, yet controlled in his movements. He wanted to get advice and pointers, especially since Minho was older and therefore had more expertise in the dance major than him, but alas, he’d had no such luck. 

_ Oh well, I guess I’ll just call Changbin and get his advice again, even though he knows nothing about dancing, it’s better to get an objective opinion either way. _

Changbin and Hyunjin became unlikely friends in high school. Hyunjin talked to anyone if he had something to say and Changbin preferred not to say anything at all to people he didn’t know well. So when Hyunjin sat next to Changbin in Chemistry, Changbin at first admitted to Hyunjin that it was his worst nightmare. But soon enough, they were both failing and Changbin begrudgingly asked Hyunjin if he wanted to study together. Once Hyunjin discovered they had the same sense of humor and a strong interest in music, they became inseperable.

Though Changbin didn’t dance himself, his ability to read the emotions behind music made him a suitable person to go to for dance advice. He would’ve preferred someone who could talk to him in dance terms though.

Even putting aside his worries about his dance homework, Hyunjin had a long week. Between unpacking his numerous articles of clothing, reading syllabi, figuring out where all his classes were, and the frustrating roommate situation, he was exhausted. He needed a way to unwind. Man, if only he was old enough to buy alcohol. His mind drifted to Minho again. 

_ Nah, there’s no way. But maaayyybe he would, he’s a cool guy right? _

Just then, his phone lit up with a text from one of his history classmates. 

Song Mingi: heyyy dude whatcha doing tonight? Cause if you don’t have plans, I’m having a banging party at my house at 10

Song Mingi: You can invite whoever you want as long as theyre chill. There will be alcohol

_ This man must be a godsend, _Hyunjin thought to himself. When he met Mingi in history class, he seemed pretty cool. This party is just what he needs.

Hyunjin: Nah I actually don’t have plans tonight. Send me the address, I’ll bring a few people

Song Mingi: Looking forward to it dude!

As he got the last text from Mingi containing the address and a picture of his house, he arrived at TMT Dorm. No one actually knew what the initials stood for. When Hyunjin first arrived at the dorm, he asked a few residents out of curiosity. When they didn’t have a good answer, he asked the RA and then finally Minho who had lived at the dorm last year and was only met with shrugs in response. He swore that before his time at Young Wings ended, he would figure out this well-kept secret.

Hyunjin walked inside, took the elevator up to the fourth floor, and walked to room number 4419. He unlocked the door and walked in to see Minho lounging on the bed.

“Hey Minho, how was your day?” he inquired with a smile.

“Good, how was yours?” he shot back without looking up from his phone.

“It was pretty alright, just exhausting,” Hyunjin replied with a scrunched up face and a groan.

“First weeks always are,” Minho replied again without missing a beat.

That’s how it always goes. He says something in an attempt to start a conversation about school or any topic and just gets a curt response. Hmm, maybe this party could be an opportunity to try and get to know Minho better.

“So hey I just got invited to this party tonight by one of my classmates in history and I wanted to extend an invitation to you. You should come and let off some steam, I know we both probably need it from all the first week craziness,” Hyunjin said rather convincingly.

“Thanks, but that’s alright. Parties aren’t really my thing,” Minho retorted.

_ Parties aren’t my thing? _Every time someone said this in response to one of his invites, it never failed to baffle him. Parties were a chance to let loose, free of judgement, and just enjoy yourself. Everyone wants to stop overthinking sometimes right? That’s exactly what parties are for. And by God if he couldn’t get his roommate to at least acknowledge him in a non-robotic fashion, he really was way more lame than he thought.

“C’mon man! Parties can by everyone’s thing if they know how to enjoy them. This guy sounded pretty cool, it’ll probably be really fun,” Hyunjin almost pleaded.

“I really appreciate the offer Hyunjin, but I’d rather unwind by lying in bed. Call me boring if you want, but that’s just how I am,” Minho snapped.

Oof. That was kind of harsh. He didn’t mean to upset the guy. Every time he makes an attempt with this guy, he always seems to screw it up. As much as Hyunjin had been called pushy, whiny, and overbearing, first and foremost, he considered himself a nice person. 

“I’m sorry man, I didn’t mean to push it,” Hyunjin responded genuinely.

Minho sighed softly. “It’s okay.”

Would it be crossing a line now to ask about the alcohol? Ugh, he really doesn’t want to ask one of the seniors in his dance class. That would look so lame. But now I’ve upset this guy and he already hated me from the moment-

“You either look like you're about to kill me or ask me a question. I don't know which I should be more afraid of, but spit it out,” Minho said with a bored tone.

Shit. He must’ve been staring again. Bad habit.

“I know you’re not going, but can I possibly ask you a small favor?” Hyunjin implored, making a pinching gesture and his voice go high-pitched at the word, small.

Minho sighed again, a little louder this time. “What is it?”

“If I pay you, could you run to the store and get alcohol for me?”

“If I get you a bottle of vodka, will you stop bothering me?”

“100%, absolutely yes. Not a peep for the rest of the night,” Hyunjin listed off quickly.

Minho put his phone in his pocket, stood up, walked over to Hyunjin, and put his hand out, “Give me what you’re paying.”

Hyunjin grabbed a twenty out of his wallet and put it in Minho’s hand.

“I’ll be back,” Minho said before walking out the door.

_ Damn _ , Hyunjin thought, _ and all of that without even looking at me once _.

\--

Hyunjin might be a little tipsy. Just as he was thinking that, he stumbled back and hit someone standing behind him. The person reached their hands up to Hyunjin’s shoulders and steadied him. He turned around and was met with Changbin’s smiling face. 

Hyunjin giggled lightly, “Thanks buddy,” he said patting Changbin’s head affectionately.

To Changbin’s left stood Changbin’s best friend and roommate, Han Jisung. He wore a less than amused expression on his face. Hyunjin had known both of them since high school. Hyunjin and Changbin had hit it off right away. Their senses of humor meshed well and they shared a passion for music. He could always count on Changbin for words of advice or a shoulder to cry on (he’s used the latter more than he’d like to admit).

Jisung and Hyunjin on the other hand...had an _ interesting _ relationship to put it lightly. They kind of hated each other. Well, Hyunjin wasn’t sure if he should use the word hate because that’s a pretty strong word. Hyunjin greatly disliked Jisung and Jisung probably hated him. Ever since the beginning, it seemed Jisung held something against him. Maybe he was jealous he was popular, maybe he was jealous Changbin had found another friend, Hyunjin really couldn’t say. Jisung had a way of getting under his skin by making underhanded comments about his wealth or popularity. They would get in frequent arguments when left to themselves, but they tried to tone it down for Changbin’s sake. 

Where were they going again? Oh yeah, they parked down the street from Mingi’s house and were walking there together. They may have pregamed a little bit in Changbin and Jisung’s dorm first… Hyunjin may have drank a little more than them. Hyunjin may have also potentially invited everyone in his contact list that went to Young Wings to this party… but at least he still had the sense to know where they were going.

As they walked up the driveway to Mingi’s house, they heard loud EDM music coming from inside. The house was...smaller than he expected. Maybe this was more of an intimate party. If that was the case, maybe he shouldn’t have invited so many people. Woops. 

He knocked on the door, and it swung open before his hand left the door. Standing in front of them was a very plastered Mingi.

“Hey man! Thanks for coming, dance floor’s overrrrr there,” he gestures behind him, “And alcohol’s in the kitchen!” he slurred. 

“Thanks,” Hyunjin said with a smile. They all crammed inside with Hyunjin leading the way. His smile soon faded as looked around. 

His earlier thought that the house was small proved to be correct. A bunch of people were standing around crammed together and it was really dark. Off to the right side, there was a medium-sized, beat-up leather couch that people were literally sitting on top of each other on. To his left was a small kitchen with an island that contained a punch bowl filled with an orange liquid and various other types of alcohol. People were dancing around the small living space and stumbling into each other. The whole place couldn’t be more than twelve hundred square feet. And the worst part was, the place reeked. 

Hyunjin would consider himself a “partier.” He loved going out to the club, getting drunk, making out with somebody he didn’t know, and then not knowing where he was going to wake up the next morning. That was the thrill of it all. But he was not a weed smoker. He’d tried it once sophomore year in high school. One of the cool seniors he was trying to befriend named Jaehyun passed him a joint. He put it to his lips, nearly had an asthma attack, and then almost passed out from the smell. Hyunjin wasn’t a weed fan, absolutely not.

Not wanting to waste the night, he turned back around to his friends who were wearing equally as disgusted faces. 

“Okay guys, I know this doesn’t look ideal but-” Hyunjin started,

“Yeah no shit, it doesn’t look ideal,” Jisung rudely interrupted.

“Shut up for a second,” Hyunjin sassed back, “Let’s just get our fill of the free alcohol and try to dance for a couple hours, then let’s hit up a Denny’s or something.”

“Works for me,” Changbin responded. Changbin glanced over at Jisung’s sour expression and crossed arms. “Oh c’mon Jisung, it’s not that bad.”

“Whatever, I’m going to go find Seungmin,” Jisung said, annoyed. 

“Seungmin? Kim Seungmin from high school?” Hyunjin suddenly inquired.

“Yes. The one you invited you mean?” Jisung shot back sarcastically.

“Oh shit, I forgot I had his number in my phone. I’m going to grab a cup of punch and go say hi,” Hyunjin said before strolling towards the kitchen counter. He saw Jisung roll his eyes before he walked away.

Hyunjin shoved his way through the people clustered in the kitchen wearing overly tight pants, low-cut tops, and mini skirts. He himself didn’t look much different. He had on a loose, flowing, deep purple top french-tucked into his favorite leather pants. A light shimmer of eyeshadow dusted across his eyes and he even put on eyeliner and his good shoes. _ Man, I can’t believe all of this went to waste on a lame party _ , he thought as he poured himself a cup of mysterious punch. _ At the least the alcohol won’t. _

As Hyunjin surveyed the room, he spotted him over by the couch. Wearing a pair of faded jeans, a collared shirt covered by a gray sweater, and a long necklace. Hyunjin giggled to himself; he never changed.

Seungmin and him weren’t super close in high school. But Hyunjin would hang out with Changbin a lot and if Changbin was there, Jisung was there, and if Jisung was there, Seungmin would show up sometimes too. Jisung would claim that if he had to hang around Hyunjin, he had the right to invite his own friends. Hyunjin rolled his eyes at the memory. Hyunjin liked Seungmin. He was easy to get along with and easy to talk to. He was always super studious, while Hyunjin himself wasn’t and he didn’t show up to any parties Hyunjin invited him to in high school. He was intrigued as to why he decided to now. And of course, of all the parties he had to show up to. Hyunjin made his way over to the living room where he walked over towards the fluffy brown-haired boy. His back was to Hyunjin as he approached him. He was talking to a boy with blonde hair and freckles. _ Who is he? Shit, I hope it’s not someone I’m supposed to know. I’m too fucking drunk for this. _

The freckled boy seemed to notice Hyunjin walking towards them and gestured at Seungmin just as Hyunjin put an arm around his shoulder. He felt Seungmin tense a bit.

“Hey! Seungmin! It’s been forever. How are you doing?” Hyunjin said with a bright smile.

“Hey, I’m doing well. How about yourself? Seungmin said back, a tight-lipped smile on his face. 

“Fan-freakin’-tastic! I mean this party kind of sucks, but the alcohol’s still working wonders,” Hyunjin said giggling,”Who’s your friend?”

“This is Felix! He’s my roommate.” 

“Nice to meet you! Seungmin’s told me about you! All good things of course.” Felix’s cheerful smile was infectious and Hyunjin couldn’t help but smile back.

“Aww Minnie! You talk about me?”

“Not that much,” Seungmin awkwardly laughed sending a pointed look at Felix.

“By the way, I specifically remember inviting you to a handful of parties in high school, but you never came. Why’d you change your mind?” Hyunjin asked, attempting to take his arm from around Seungmin shoulder, only to wobble and place it back on his forearm. 

Seungmin smiled a little wider at his clumsiness. “Oh, you know. Just wanted to try something new. Maybe college is the chance for a new me.”

“Yeah? I’m really glad you decided to give the party life a chance man,” Hyunjin leaned closer to Seungmin’s ear and very loudly whispered, “To be honest this party kind of sucks, so me, Changbin, and a few other people were going head to Denny’s in like an hour. I hope to see you there. Oh and have you had anything to drink yet? Here take this,” Hyunjin said without waiting for Seungmin to respond. He handed Seungmin his drink and carefully removed his hand from Seungmin’s arm.

“Oh I don’t really-” Seungmin started, but Hyunjin stopped him with a dramatic wave of his hands. “Trust me man, this is the type of party you want to get drunk at and not remember.”

“Anyway, I’m going to head to the dance...area and try to have a little fun before we bust out of here. Feel free to join me or if not, come find me later.

“Sure, Hyunjin,” Seungmin said, a warm smile on his face.

“By the way, I love your sweater. It looks really cute on you,” he said before turning on his heel, stumbling a bit in the process and waving to Seungmin. When he got a bit closer to the dance area, he glanced back at Seungmin only to see him chugging his drink in one gulp.

_ Now that’s the spirit. _

\--

Hyunjin distinctly remembers getting lost in a tangle of sweaty bodies, lights flashing around him and blinding him at points. 

_ How did Mingi even install flashing lights in here anyway? _

He sort of remembers going back for alcohol more than once, the taste of punch, rum, and green apple vodka on his tongue. He doesn’t really remember how someone else’s lipstick got on his lips or how the unmistakable taste of weed lingered in his mouth, but he’s honestly kind of glad about that one. 

All he knows for certain is that he’s currently sitting in a Denny’s surrounded by about ten other people (some he knows, some he doesn’t) and really _ really _wants some pancakes.

He turns to the person on his right intending to ask where his pancakes were. Before fully turning around, which was a more difficult task than he first imagined, he asked,

“Hey Changbin, did they take our order yet?” Upon realizing that the person sitting next to him was not Changbin, but Seungmin, his face lit up in surprise and sincere happiness, “Seungmin! You came!”

“Hyunjin that’s the third time you’ve said that,” Seungmin said with exasperation, but Hyunjin noticed he couldn’t keep a smile from spreading across his face.

“Hey, that just means I like you three times as much,” Hyunjin half-whined. 

Seungmin turned back to talk to the person across from him, a pink flush on his cheeks.

_ I’m glad Seungmin was finally able to let loose and drink a little bit. _

He looked down the table they were all sitting at and tried to pick out faces he knew- Hongjoong from liberal arts...oh there’s Johnny, Hyunjin knew him in high school, he’s pretty chill...Seonghwa from music theory, he’s kind of quiet, didn’t know he was the party type..and there’s Jisung. Huh, no Changbin. Where did he run off to? Oh well, he’d interrogate him later. 

After making attempts at small talk with a few people sitting at the table (you know the usual, hey what year are you? How do you know Mingi? Your classes suck? Mine do too! And so on and so forth), a tired-looking waitress came out holding twelve piping-hot plates of pancakes. 

“Oh hell yeah!” Hyunjin and Jisung said simultaneously. They looked at each other in mild shock, but quickly looked away as soon as their pancakes were in front of them.

Someone shouted (Hyunjin honestly couldn’t tell you who), “PANCAKE EATING CONTEST, whoever loses has to buy all the alcohol at the next party!” 

And that’s all it took to make twelve drunk people start shoveling pancakes into their mouth as fast as they could.

\--

“Ha ha! Mark’s buying all the alcohol!” Johnny laughed. 

“Oh c’mon guys, you know I lose every bet in existence. We’re not actually taking this seriously right?” Mark replied, whining.

Hyunjin glanced over at Seungmin. He was examining his bill and was putting his glasses on to see better. He looked like a turtle with his brow furrowed and Hyunjin thought it was really cute.

“Oh my god, are you serious? I don’t have my wallet!”

Hyunjin turned his attention to whoever spoke, only to see Jisung patting his pockets in frustration. 

Hyunjin felt bad. As much as he and Jisung don’t get along, he’s been in the position of drunkenly losing his wallet and it was not a fun ordeal.

“Don’t worry, I’ll cover you,” Hyunjin said dismissively.

Jisung looked up at him in shock and annoyance. “No, you’re not.”

“I really don’t mind. It’s no problem,” Hyunjin replied easily.

“I don’t think you understand. I don’t want to owe you a damn thing, so lay off,” Jisung said raising his tone.

“Seriously, don’t worry about it. You don’t even have to pay me back dude.”

“Don’t ‘dude’ me, I’m not your friend and I certainly don’t need handouts from a pretentious rich kid who doesn’t know the first thing about earning his own money. I’m perfectly capable of paying for myself,” Jisung replied viciously, standing up from his chair.

The whole table was looking at them now.

“I know you’re capable, but currently you don’t have a wallet and I’m just trying to do the right thing and help you out,” Hyunjin said, defensiveness clear from his tone. 

“Fuck you man! You can pretend to care about doing the right thing in front of others, but you can’t fool me. Maybe if you worked hard for something a day in your life, you wouldn’t be so high and mighty,” Jisung continued. “You know what? I don’t even give a shit anymore. I’m out of here. I’m not going to stay in bad company for longer than absolutely necessary,” Jisung said resolutely before walking out.

About ten seconds passed, in which the table was dead silent. Then, side conversations started up between the others, as if nothing had happened.

“I’ve got his bill Hyunjin, don’t worry about it.” Hyunjin turned to Seungmin who had a disappointed look on his face. Hyunjin wasn’t sure which party he was disappointed in, but he hoped it wasn’t him.

“Nah, it’s fine. I said I would pay for it and I will,” Hyunjin replied firmly.

“But he said all those nasty things to you. Are you sure?” Seungmin asked hesitantly.

“Of course.”

Seungmin’s facial expression changed in a way that Hyunjin couldn’t describe.

“You’re a good guy Hyunjin.”

And even though some of things Jisung said really stung, in that moment, he felt like he really was.

\--

“Which way’s your dorm?” Seungmin asked as they walked out of the restaurant.

“Uhhhhh this way I think,” Hyunjin replied pointing to the path east of the Denny’s, “Are you sure you wanna walk me home? I can get there on my own.”

“It’s the least I could do,” Seungmin said, hesitantly eyeing Hyunjin as if he was a walking hazard.

_ C’mon I’m not that drunk. I can handle- _

Before he could finish that thought, he swayed a little too far to his left and his legs gave out from underneath him. Seungmin was there before he even hit the ground and put Hyunjin’s arm around his shoulder.

“Alright buddy, just hold onto me okay?” Seungmin spoke softly.

They began the walk to TMT slowly, but surely. It was a dark and quiet kind of night and except for other drunk people laughing and dragging their friends home, there weren’t many people making the trek. The autumn night made for a chilly breeze and Hyunjin had neglected to bring a jacket, but Seungmin felt like a soft space heater, so he buried his face into his shoulder.

“Minnieeee, of all the parties you had to go to, why this one? You should’ve come to a fun one.”

“I don’t know, I guess I just wanted to give it a shot,” Seungmin replied.

“Next time, I’m going to take you to a real party, okay? And we’re going to dance and it’s gonna be so much fun.” Hyunjin said with determination.

Seungmin laughed lightly.

“We should hang out more. We haven’t hung out in _ forever _,” Hyunjin said waving his free arm around.

“Ask Binnie to plan a get together then, and I’ll come.”

“Nooo, like us. Like me and you. Hyunjin and Seungmin. _ We _haven’t hung out,” Hyunjin pointed his finger between himself and Seungmin multiple times as he spoke.

Seungmin laughed again. “I didn’t know you wanted to hang out with an old man like me. I don’t know if you’ve paid attention the last few years, but we’re not exactly, how do I say it, into the same activities or in the same social circle,” Seungmin stated with hint of self-deprecation.

Hyunjin furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. That was a lot of fancy phrasing. What was Seungmin talking about? He thought they had some pleasant conversations in high school. He liked Seungmin. Sure, Changbin might’ve been there, but that didn’t mean he didn’t value their interactions. He wasn’t sure what it was about him, but the way Seungmin talked was so interesting. The way he dressed was endearing, even if it was a little old man-like. He was a comforting presence. He never felt out-of-place or awkward talking to him. Maybe Hyunjin gave off the wrong impression to him in high school.

“We’re talking right now, aren’t we? Maybe we didn’t talk a lot, but you’re super cool Seungmin. You’re always so good at school stuff and talking to people. You’re going to be a great teacher. Do you not want to hang out with me?” Hyunjin whined, a pout on his lips.

Seungmin wore a surprised expression, “You remembered that I wanted to become a teacher?”

“Yeah, I’m not a horrible friend,” Hyunjin said resolutely.

They walked in silence for a few minutes. Hyunjin hated silence. So much so that he started to visibly squirm against Seungmin’s shoulder, rubbing his head against him arm almost like a cat.

Seungmin mumbled softly under his breath. The only thing Hyunjin caught were the words, “why” and “hard.” 

Hyunjin took this break in conversation to study Seungmin’s face. His hair was a soft brown and he definitely needed a haircut. His wavy locks were beginning to stick out in different directions that no amount of hairspray and water would be able to maintain. His brow was creased slightly in concentration. The slope of his nose was pretty and round and he followed it with his eyes until he reached a pair of soft, pink lips set in a straight line. Something near his smooth jawline caught his eye, a round beauty mark. It sat just offset from where faint laugh lines appear on the side of his mouth. Hyunjin thought it was one of the prettiest things he’s ever seen. He wanted to reach out and touch it.

He lifted his hand intending to poke at Seungmin’s cheek, only to find Seungmin looking at him expectantly.

“We’re here. TMT Hall right?” Seungmin questioned.

Hyunjin snapped out of his reverie and blinked up at Seungmin.

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“Do you need help getting inside?” Seungmin asked.

“No no, I’m okay.” Despite saying that, Hyunjin made no move to seperate from Seungmin. He was enjoying laying on Seungmin’s shoulder and he didn’t quite want the moment to end yet.

“Don’t you want to get inside? It’s chilly out here,” Seungmin chided with a smile on his face.

“It’s okay, you’re warm."

A slight flush rose to Seungmin’s cheeks and he looked away.

Hyunjin spoke up again, “Thanks for coming Minnie. I really liked hanging out, let’s do it again soon.”

Seungmin patted his head affectionately and Hyunjin closed his eyes. He loved being pet.

“Alright, Hyunjin. Let’s go to bed for tonight and then we’ll hang out again soon,” Seungmin said.

“Okaaayy, if I have to.” He glanced back up at Seungmin’s face. The beauty mark instantly caught his eye again.

“This is pretty,” he mumbled, poking the place where Seungmin’s mole was.

Hyunjin watched Seungmin’s mouth fall open in shock for the second time that night. He finally disconnected from Seungmin’s side and slowly and carefully made his way to the door. He slid his keycard and waved to Seungmin before stepping inside. _ Oh wait. _

Hyunjin turned back around. Seungmin’s jaw had returned to its original position and he was presumably walking in the direction of his dorm.

“Seungmin!” Seungmin whipped his head around. “I know you said you were doing the whole new year, new me sorta thing, but… don’t change too much okay?”

Without waiting for a response, Hyunjin went back inside. Boy, he was going to sleep like a rock tonight.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who do you think the last person's POV will be? Let me know in the comments.
> 
> I accept any and all feedback :)
> 
> Twitter: @whynothavefun16


	3. Jisung's Fortunate Misfortune

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okaaayy. Thank you for bearing with the format changes. I think we're finally done with all that. Inner speech is now italicized 100% of the time; hopefully it wasn't too confusing lol
> 
> Shout out to Liz as always for being at my beck and call even though she's a busy lady :)

Jisung woke up with a pounding headache and the blinding sunlight shooting through the blinds did little to dull the pain in his head. _ Agh, what happened last night? _

Jisung craned his neck to the right to see Changbin sleeping in his bed beside him.  _ At least I made it back to my room.  _ Seeing Changbin reminded him that he begrudgingly followed him to a party last night. One that  _ Hyunjin _ invited him to. And oh yeah, that party completely sucked. _ What happened after that? I can’t remember.  _

His stomach let out a groan and Jisung was suddenly hit with a wave of nausea.

_ Oh shit.  _

He climbed out of bed as fast as he could and raced to the bathroom that they shared with the people next door. He thanked his lucky stars that it was connected to their room because he made it just before he puked his guts out.

A drop of sweat dripped down his forehead and Jisung sat on the bathroom floor and backed himself up against the cool tile to take a breather.

_ Oh yeah. Fucking Denny’s. _

At that moment, it all came flashing back to him. Leaving for Denny’s with Seungmin when they both couldn’t find either Changbin or Felix respectively. Seungmin essentially begged him to go because he wanted to see Hyunjin, but didn’t want to go alone. Himself agreeing like an idiot. That pretentious asshole paying for him when he couldn’t find his wallet. He had given his wallet to Changbin at the beginning of the night because the last time he got shit-faced, he handed it to some random guy he met earlier in the night and said “Hold this.” In true shitty, drunk fashion, the person held it alright, until Jisung had long forgotten about it. 

And of course, Changbin had to have disappeared later when they all went to Denny’s. He kind of blew up at Hyunjin (which was warranted in his opinion) and then he stormed out.

And that asshole probably paid for him anyway. 

Jisung felt the rage seep into him again from last night. He stood up and stomped around the room searching for his wallet. When he finally found it sitting on Changbin’s desk, he searched it making sure all his stuff was still inside. He took out a ten dollar bill. 

_ We’re settling this right now. No way am I owing Hyunjin anything besides a punch in the face. _ He whipped open the door to his room.

“Jisung, what are you doing at…” he heard shuffling and turned around, “9:00 in the morning?” Changbin mumbled half-asleep. “Do you not have a fucking hangover?”

“Oh I do, but settling the score with Hyunjin comes before sleep and pain medication.”

“You know what? I don’t even want to know. Just stop making so much fucking noise.” And with that, Changbin turned back over in bed.

Jisung started marching down the hallway, but he didn’t have to go very far, because did he forget to mention, Hyunjin lived about three doors down across the hall. You may be wondering, with a random selection system and the amount of dorm rooms on a college campus, how did Jisung end up living just seconds away from the most irritating person on Earth? Well, that’s just how shit his luck was.

He stood in front of Room 4419 and started pounding on the door. Neighbors be damned. 

“Hyunjin if you don’t take this goddamn money from me right now, I swear I will break down your door! I don’t care if you’re hungover, this is payback for taking me to that lame-ass-”

The door opened to reveal someone who was very much not Hyunjin...and shirtless. Jisung immediately shut up.

The guy surveyed him up and down with an unimpressed look on his face, before finally speaking, “Your friend is very much passed out and sleeps like a rock, so I doubt you’re going to get to him anytime soon.”

_ Shit. He’s attractive. Oh boy.  _

“If you keep your mouth open like that, you’re gonna catch flies,” shirtless guy said with the same bored tone, but Jisung could detect a hint of amusement in his eyes.

“Ah yeah right.” Jisung replied intelligently before starting his sentence over, “I’m sorry to wake you up so early in the morning, but-”

“Clearly not that sorry since you were pounding on the door like a madman,” the guy cut off.

“But Hyunjin and I went to this party last night and-”

“It was lame?” supplied shirtless man with an expectant look.

“No! Not all all...uh it was super fun, so fun and we got super drunk. Then, us and a few other people went to Denny’s and I kinda didn’t have my wallet, so Hyunjin kindly offered to pay for me. And I just wanted to pay him back,” Jisung finished.

“At 9 in the morning? Knowing full well you’d both be hungover?” shirtless man said disbelievingly.

“Well...I just wanted to make sure I didn’t forget. It was on my mind, so I thought I’d just do it now.” Jisung said putting on his best convincing face.

“Riiight,” he held his hand out, “If you give it to me, I’ll be sure to give it to him when he wakes up.”

Jisung put the ten in his hand. He didn’t even care if the guy was lying; he could steal it for all he cared. Consider it payment for the free show he’s getting right now.

“Who should I say it’s from?” the guy inquired.

“Jisung, Han Jisung. And you are? I feel bad not knowing my friend’s roommate’s name.” 

The man again surveyed him up and down before giving a slight smirk and shake of his head. “Lee Minho. Nice to meet you Han Jisung.” He stuck out his hand.

Jisung eagerly took it.

“Well, you’ll probably be seeing a lot more of me because Hyunjin and I hang out all the time,” Jisung said lying through his teeth, “So I’ll see you around Minho.”

“Alright then. Bye Jisung. Also, your eyeliner is really smeared. You might want to remove that before you go back to sleep.” 

That was the last thing Jisung heard before Minho shut the door.

_ Oh man. Minho is so hot. _ His chest was so perfectly sculpted. His lips were so pretty, not to mention, his eyes. All things considered, Jisung thought their conversation went pretty well. He managed to save himself some embarrassment at least. Then Jisung remembered one minor detail, he told Minho he was good friends with Hyunjin.

_ I’m such an idiot. How am I going to get out of this one without looking like the biggest dumbass on the planet?  _ Jisung groaned, slapping his forehead.

He walked back into his room lost in thought, so lost in thought that when he went to flop on his bed, he stubbed his toe on the dresser.

“Fuck!” Jisung yelled clutching his toe and hopping around.

“Jisung for fuck’s sake, can you shut up for more than five minutes?” Changbin yelled back. 

“I stubbed my toe asshole, and I don’t want to hear shit from you considering you’re the one who dragged me to last night’s ‘soiree’,” Jisung complained putting his hands up in air quotes at the end.

“If you’re going to complain about Hyunjin again, I don’t want to hear it. You wouldn’t shut up last night. You’re so much worse when you’re drunk,” Changbin groaned rubbing his temples.

“No fuck Hyunjin,” Jisung waved his hand dismissively, “have you met his roommate?”

“No, why?” Changbin asked narrowing his eyes.

“He’s hot Changbin-”

“Oh no no no. We’re not doing this again. I’m going back to sleep,” Changbin said putting his pillow over his ears.

“Changbin! You don’t understand, he’s like  _ really  _ hot! And he was frickin’ shirtless! Like I’ve never seen a man with such a perfectly symmetrical face, pretty nose, big eyes, the whole package really...did I mention he was shirtless?”

Changbin let out an annoyingly exaggerated groan. 

“Jisung, you were literally in love with half the football team senior year. Just because someone has a nice face and body doesn’t mean they’re the love of your life.”

Jisung pouted.

“And I’m sure chewing out Hyunjin at 9 in the morning really made him think, ‘yeah, I really want to go out with this guy.’”

“Hyunjin didn’t even wake up so-” Jisung started.

“Even better! You interrupted  _ his _ sleep to chew Hyunjin out.”

“Will you shut up? What’s with everybody interrupting me this morning? Jeez,” Jisung said aggravatedly, “I decided against chewing Hyunjin out when I saw his beautiful face.”

“Wow, what a saint,” Changbin deadpanned.

“Then, I told him we went to this awesome party and to pay Hyunjin back for me. That’s all. See? I can be a decent human being when I want to,” Jisung said with a look of pride.

“Yeah, when you have ulterior motives, and you lied on top of it,” Changbin sighs. “Wait, what were you paying Hyunjin back for? Actually nevermind, I don’t care.”

Now that Jisung thought about it, this whole thing happened because Changbin had his wallet and Jisung was pissed off enough to go yell at Hyunjin this morning. Maybe he should thank Hyunjin for being his normal pretentious self. Ugh and now he has to figure out how to see Minho again. _ Where was Changbin last night anyway? _

“Speaking of the party, where did you disappear to last night? Seungmin dragged me to Denny’s and Hyunjin was whining about you not being there,” Jisung asked curiously.

Changbin turned his face towards the ceiling.

“Oh um, well I actually met up with Felix,” Changbin said timidly.

“Ooooooohhh, I see how it is,” Jisung said with a smirk, turning towards Changbin.

“No! You don’t see how anything is! We literally just talked.”

“Yeah, okay, sure,” Jisung said disbelievingly. “I expect all the dirty details later, but I’m about to fall asleep, so night dude.”

Changbin sighed. “Whatever. Goodnight.”

Jisung rolled over to turn his bedside lamp off before falling into a deep slumber.

\--

Jisung was at the store trying to buy some cereal. As he searched up and down the aisles, he realized that he had to go to the bathroom really bad, like emergency-level bad. But everywhere that he seemed to search, there was no indication of a bathroom.

He eventually went up to an employee that worked at the store...he swore he recognized her from somewhere, but the place slipped his mind. She pointed him in the direction of the toilet which for some reason was in the center of the store.

When he arrived there, he was surprised to see that the “bathroom” was really a toilet sitting in the middle of the store, no divider, no toilet paper, no anything besides the single toilet.

Jisung had no choice, he had to go. He checked to make sure the coast was clear, then quickly pulled his pants down and sat.

As soon as he sat, hot roommate himself strolled around the corner. There was a beat of eye contact between the two before Minho burst out laughing. 

“Wait, you don’t understand! I had no choice!” Jisung yelled.

Minho just continued to double over in laughter while pointing at Jisung. He didn’t even appear to be listening. Jisung felt the hot waves of shame wash over his body. He couldn’t get up. He couldn’t even stop Minho from laughing

Just then, to make matters worse, the fire alarm went off in the store. Oh no, he had to get out of here he had to-

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Jisung rolled over with a groan and opened his eyes. He blindly reached for the source of the blaring noise that now filled the room. When he finally wrapped his hand around a phone-like object he tapped his fingers all over the screen until his alarm turned off. He groaned again. The weekend went by way too fast. He spent the majority of his time coming up with a plan to see Minho again to no avail. Now he had math, his least favorite subject. Remind him why he decided to take 9 am Stats class again?

_ And what was that dream?  _ He’d never had a dream like that before. When he does dream, usually they’re nice things like meeting his favorite celebrity or making out with a member of his high school football team. Or super scary things, like being chased by Pennywise the clown or failing all of his music classes, dropping out of school, and living in a box for the rest of his life.

But this? This was just straight-up humiliating. And Minho was there.

He’d never been humiliated like that in his life.  _ What does that mean? I have to look this up.  _ He sprung up out of bed and opened his laptop.

Jisung had a bit of an obsession with dream analysis. In fact if you asked Changbin, he had an obsession with every type of “pseudoscience.” The supernatural, astrology, tarot cards, you name it, and Jisung probably researched it religiously. Changbin didn’t understand his interest. 

“None of that stuff is actually backed up by evidence you know that right?” Changbin would frequently say.

And no matter how many times Jisung told him that his horoscope predicted the truth, like when a tragedy was supposed to befall him and he failed his math test, Changbin just shook his head. 

“You didn’t even study Jisung! Of course you failed it.”

Whatever. He just didn’t get it. He started typing into Google:  _ Dream where someone made fun of you what does it mean? _

He scrolled his cursor over the first search result.  _ This looks good. “Dream Analysis Guide: Embarrassment-related dreams.” _

His eyes scanned the text quickly bypassing all the crap about the “analysis is not guaranteed to be true for everyone” blah blah blah who cares. 

_ “In dreams where someone is making fun of you, the usual cause is anxiety over messing up your relationship with this person. It can also represent a lack of confidence within yourself that stems from the fear of someone finding out an embarrassing thing about you. The dream can end up positive if you laugh it off or overcome the situation, but if you break down, it could mean you’ll react that way in real life.” _

_ Great. Fucking great. Now I’m going to embarrass myself in front of Minho. _

He picked up his phone. Shit. He’s going to be late to Stats class. He jumped up from his chair so fast that he nearly knocked it over, grabbed the closest sweatshirt and jeans out of his closet, threw them on, grabbed his backpack and laptop and ran out the door.

\--

By the time he got to the math building, his legs were burning and he was completely out of breath. He doubled over for a minute outside his classroom trying to make it look like he didn’t just sprint a mile before strolling inside 10 minutes late. He ended up finding a seat in the middle of the room on the end of a row. The professor barely gave him a glance. That’s the advantage of having a math class with 200-something people in it. 

When he sat down, he immediately opened his laptop.  _ Hmm what to do that’s not take notes… _

Oh shit he forgot to look at his horoscope this morning. He probably would have avoided this whole late mess if he had followed what it said. He sighed. He was too distracted by that dumb dream. Oh well, might as well see what it says and plan accordingly.

He clicked on his favorite astrology site and scrolled down until he found Virgo.

_ “Things related to love and romance go well for you today. Push forward with confidence, but be on guard for a surprise may come your way. If you handle the situation with a positive mindset, you can overcome any obstacles this may pose.” _

Jisung hates surprises. How was this horoscope supposed to prepare him for anything if it’s going to be a surprise? He slumped down in his seat in frustration. Now he’s going to be on guard all day.

He might as well turn to his last source of happiness, Buzzfeed quizzes. 

Ooooh, “Find Out What Zodiac Sign You’ll Marry Based on Your Pizza Topping Preferences.” That sounds promising. 

He went through each question and sufficiently judged all the pizza toppings to the best of his ability before reaching the end of the quiz. And let him just say: sausage as a pizza topping is disgusting and dipping pizza in ranch is superior. Finally the last question: _“Will you share your pizza?”_ _Um no, I just made it for myself._ Okay, the moment of truth. And the result is...Scorpio. 

_ Hmm I don’t know anyone that’s a Scorpio. It’s so boring when you don’t know anyone with that sign. Oooh actually, come to think of it. I think that hot football player Nakamoto Yuta in high school was a Scorpio.  _ He sighed wistfully.  _ What I wouldn’t do to go back in time and make out with him. I guess we’ll meet again someday. _

The thing is, once he gets started on Buzzfeed, he can’t stop. It’s an addiction man. He blamed it on his shitty morning. He deserves this okay? So what if his notebook is blank? And so what if he doesn’t even know the topic for today? He could always just look at the powerpoint slides later.

After the fiftieth ‘what [insert food] are you?’ quiz, he finally finds one more interesting. “Plan Your Perfect Date and We’ll Tell You When You Will Meet Your Perfect Partner.”  _ Well I need something to look forward to today. _

_ “Question 1: What would you wear on your date?” _

_ Let’s not get crazy here. We’re not going anywhere too fancy. Nice shirt. Nice jeans, maybe throw on a necklace. Done and done. _

_ “Question 2: Pick a date location.” _

_ “Bowling.” Ehh. “Restaurant.” Too cliche. “Bar.” I’m not old enough for that to be legal. “Ice skating.” Hmmm, now that’s an idea. It is getting colder. I haven’t ice skated in a while, but it would be cute if I slipped and a strong man caught me in his arms and then we had a moment looking into each other’s eyes. Yeah, definitely that one. _

_ “Question 3: What do you eat on the date?” _

_ Classic pizza. _

_ “Question 4: Pick a dessert.” _

_ CHEESECAKE. Cheesecake, hands down the best dessert. Is that even a question? _

_ “Question 5: How would you say goodbye to your date?” _

_ Let’s see. “Handshake.” What? No. “Hug.” Possibly. “Kiss?” Hmm maybe, depends how good the date was. “Take them back to your house.” To like cuddle? And play videogames? That sounds sweet. Then the date doesn’t have to end there. I feel like I’d be able to evaluate them better once I destroy them in PUBG. _

Alright and...submit.

_ What the fuck is this? You’ve already met them? What a bullshit response. If I’d already met them, I wouldn’t be taking this fucking quiz in the first place. I hate this. _

Jisung didn’t know how he could deflate anymore in his chair, but somehow he made it happen. The girl next to him gave him a weird look and scooted over a little bit. 

Whatever. She wasn’t the one who had to deal with shitty dreams and bullshit quiz results. While he’s in this bad mood, he might as well pay attention to statistics. Maybe fuel his anger a little more. Jisung finally took out his notebook and looked up at the board to see what the professor was working on.

“Alright, everyone have a great rest of the morning!” the professor said.

Everyone around him hurriedly put their books away and shuffled towards the door as fast as they could. Jisung shut his laptop and threw his head on his desk with a groan.

It’s too early to be this disappointed in his day. It’s only 10:30am.

He heaved his head off his desk and started putting his laptop and notebook away, not worried about rushing. His next class wasn’t until 12:00pm anyway.

He lifted his bag over his shoulder, slid out of his chair, and slipped out of the end of the row before turning in the direction of the door.

...And he slammed head first into someone’s shoulder.

“Ow,” Jisung scrunched up his face in annoyance and put his hand to his head to soothe the pain.

“Fancy meeting you here,” a vaguely familiar voice said.

Jisung’s head shot up and his mouth went agape. Minho.

“What did I tell you about catching flies?” Minho said, a teasing lilt to his voice.

Jisung quickly shut his mouth and shook his head.  _ Stop thinking about him shirtless. Stop thinking about him shirtless. Actually, I think he may be more attractive with clothes on. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever thought that about somebody. Wait, what did he say? He insulted me again didn’t he? _

“Very funny,” Jisung responded sarcastically, “You can’t sneak up on people like that, I’m clumsy. Next time, we’re both hitting the floor.”

Minho just raised his eyebrows, but otherwise kept an unimpressed look on his face.

“So you have stats too?” Jisung said quickly to continue the conversation.

“Unfortunately. For some reason, the school won’t accept one of my math credits from high school even though it was a college-level course.” He lets out a short, but audible sigh.

“Anyway, as much as I’d love to stay and chat, I have to get to the practice rooms before they’re all taken.” Minho says with an air of finality.

“Practice rooms?”

“Yeah, I’m a dance major.” Minho says lazily while backing towards the door.

“Wow, that’s really cool. I’m into music too you know!” Jisung raised his voice the farther Minho gets away in the large classroom.

“Ah, well aren’t you impressive?” Minho commented, the teasing tone returning to his voice.

One of his hands reached the door before he turned back around once more to face Jisung.

“Oh and I would suggest going to the movies instead, it’s still too warm to ice skate.” He winks and walks out the door.

As soon as he thinks Minho’s out of earshot and ensures there’s no one else in the classroom, he lets out a loud noise somewhere between a whine and a groan. 

_ Of course he’s a dancer. No wonder he has such a great body. And of course, he had to have been sitting behind me. Oh my god, he saw everything. He saw me playing stupid Buzzfeed quizzes the whole class. What if he’s the super studious type and is convinced I’m not serious about school now? _

At least he doesn’t have to worry about the surprise his horoscope predicted anymore.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How many of you thought it was going to be Jisung?
> 
> We're picking back up with Felix next time!
> 
> As always, any feedback at all is appreciated!!
> 
> @whynothavefun16 come yell at me about literally anything


	4. Felix's Non-dates

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Sorry for the long wait on this chapter, I was doing gross midterm stuff. Updates should be more regular, but this chapter is extra long to make up for it! I really hope you enjoy <3
> 
> As always thank you to Liz for proofreading and being my motivation. This chapter's dedicated to you.

Felix looked at the same sentence in his music textbook for what seemed like the fifteenth time. Okay, he might not be the best at studying, but he’s usually not this bad. He’s been distracted. Ever since Seungmin begged him to go to that party. The party that Seungmin swore was “really important and he couldn’t go alone and stand in a corner and look lame.” Felix had eventually drawn the real reason out of Seungmin; he had a crush on Hwang Hyunjin, the one who invited him, since high school. Since Seungmin wasn’t one to normally worry about fitting in with the crowd or looking cool, Felix was a good friend and went with him. He was also curious what the college party scene was all about.

When they arrived there, they were, how can he say, less than impressed. The place reeked and there were too many people crowded into a small space. Seungmin insisted that they waited until he saw Hyunjin and Felix begrudgingly agreed to stay with him. Hyunjin eventually came over to Seungmin and not so subtly flirted with him.

Seungmin later corrected him that Hyunjin wasn’t “flirting,” he was like that with everyone. Felix had just rolled his eyes.

While Hyunjin and Seungmin were “not flirting,” Felix scanned the crowd. Most were already drunk out of their minds, dancing wildly, or making out in a corner. As he looked around he spotted a familiar face among the mass of sweaty bodies. He locked eyes with a pair of deep brown ones. He couldn’t forget those eyes if he tried. _ Laundry Boy _. Changbin, he quickly corrected himself. Changbin smiled upon recognizing Felix before waving and signaling him to come over. Felix walked over on instinct.

As he shoved his way past people, he took notice of what Changbin was wearing. A simple black t-shirt with a pair of black jeans and a leather jacket. Felix didn’t realize those three things could look that amazing on a person until this moment. And his arms. He’s ripped. He didn’t even realize he had muscles the last time they met because Changbin had been swimming in an oversized hoodie. Felix felt himself slipping; he had a thing for arms. This man was going to be the death of him.

“Hey Felix, how are you?” Changbin said with a small smile as Felix walked up.

“Ah not too bad, could be better though,” Felix responded with a forced smile.

At that, Changbin’s face morphed into one of concern, “Why? What’s up?”

“Well, my friend dragged me to this party where I know no one and now ditched me to talk to someone else. And this place kind of reeks,” Felix laughed.

Changbin laughed along before Felix even finished speaking. “I’m kind of in a similar situation myself.”

Changbin paused for a minute before glancing around and stepping closer to Felix. He leaned closer to his ear before whispering. Felix held his breath.

“Hey, do you want to get out of here? We could take a walk around the neighborhood or something.”

When Changbin’s breath stopped hitting his ear, he exhaled.

He smiled at Changbin. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

Changbin looked around again as if assessing the best route out of this place before he suddenly took Felix’s hand and started pulling him towards the door. 

He glanced back at Felix. “Is this okay?” And Felix could be mistaken because it was kind of dark, but he swears Changbin’s blushing. He’s sure he looks no better himself.

“Y-Yeah,” he gets out, before Changbin goes back to pulling him towards the door, the grip on his hand feeling tighter than before.

Once they made it out into the cool night air, Changbin released Felix’s hand. Felix was disappointed to admit he already missed the warmth.

“Walk with me?” Changbin suddenly said, sounding much more shy than before.

_ He’s acting as if I didn’t just agree to do this two minutes earlier, _ Felix giggles to himself.

“Of course,” he said with a warm smile intending to reassure Changbin.

They started walking down the sidewalk leading left of the house at a leisurely pace.

“So,” Changbin began, “you have to tell me, how did you know you wanted to be a dancer?”

Felix let out an embarrassed chuckle. “Okay, but I’m just gonna warn you. It’s for a super dumb reason and you may laugh at me.”

“Nah, no reason for wanting to be a musician is dumb,” Changbin shot back sincerely. 

“So you know the movie Step Up 2?”

“I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never seen it.”

“Well, I think I was about ten and my mom had it playing on the TV while she was folding laundry. It’s this romance dance movie where this girl Andie teams up with this guy Chase to win an underground dance contest-”

“Is it kind of like the underground rap scene?” Changbin interrupted.

“Yeah, it’s similar to that I think,” Felix replied after contemplating for a minute. “But anyway, at the end of the movie there’s this _ amazing _ dance scene where all the street dancers and the main characters get together and do this final routine in the pouring rain.” He gestured with his hands excitedly, looking up and smiling at the fond memory of watching the movie with his mom for the first time.

“I don’t know how to describe it, their dance moves were so powerful and synchronized and I thought they were so cool. So when the movie ended, I told my mom ‘I want to do that!’”

“She enrolled me in dance classes back home, but unfortunately my town’s kind of small-” he turned back to Changbin with a bit of disappointment in his eyes, “so they didn’t really have many options. I took basic ballet and modern stuff, but hip-hop is what I really wanted to do. So on my own I would look up dance videos and I eventually I discovered K-pop music and I started following tutorials and stuff and I’ve been doing that ever since.”

He looked back at Changbin, not knowing what to expect in response.

Changbin had a wide grin on his face. 

“That’s pretty awesome Felix,” he said.

Felix looked over his face for any signs of insincerity or indication that he was going to laugh at him, but he found none. 

“You really think so?”

“I mean yeah, you took a dream you had since you were young and you made it happen. Even though it wasn’t convenient, you had the motivation to do it on your own. _ And _ you made it into the dance major. Don’t you have to audition for that?” Changbin said sincerely.

“Well yeah, but I’m not all that great. Everyone’s much more experienced than I am.” Felix answered, looking down at his hands.

“Maybe so, but they wouldn’t have let you in if they didn’t think you were good. Even if you’re not as experienced, from what you just told me, you sound like someone who works hard. You’ll get there.”

Felix stared back at Changbin as he spoke, warmth filling his chest. No one besides his mom had ever complimented him like that. This is only the second time he’s talked to Changbin. How could he believe in him that much? He hasn’t even seen him dance.

“Thank you Changbin, you don’t know how much that means to me,” he said, trying to convey how thankful he was.

“Of course, it’s the truth,” Changbin responded easily.

“Now _ you _ have to tell me. How did you get into music production?” Felix said, excitement in his eyes.

“It’s definitely not as exciting as your story, but okay.”

Felix waved him off.

“There’s not much to it really. I wasn’t really good at making friends as a kid. Always kind of kept to myself. Music was my place to escape to. You couldn’t find a time when I wasn’t listening to music. So I started making some sample stuff when I got my first computer. People always told me I was good at it and for me, there’s never really been anything else I wanted to do.”

Despite Changbin’s story sounding a little sad to Felix, there wasn’t anything in Changbin’s tone that made him seem upset about it. Felix thought that was admirable in its own way. He seemed a lot different now.

“Wow, that’s incredible. You definitely give off that ‘I’m serious about music’ vibe,” Felix replied.

“What does that mean?” Changbin said, letting out a breathy laugh.

“When I first saw you in the laundry room, you looked so serious. You seemed really into whatever you were doing, which I’m assuming now that you were working on a song. To be honest, you were a little intimidating.”

Changbin laughed again, louder this time. Felix really liked his laugh. It came out in short bursts and it was the kind of laugh that made whoever was in earshot laugh along.

“I’m probably the least intimidating person you’ll ever meet,” Changbin said.

“I didn’t mean it as an insult. You looked really cool,” Felix said sincerely, “I guess I’ll take your word for it, but my point still stands.”

They walked along in silence for a few minutes. Every time their hands accidentally brushed together, Changbin moved his hand away just quickly enough for it to be noticeable. Felix was equally disheartened and thankful each time he did so. If they held hands again, he thought his heart would beat out of his chest.

It had to be at least midnight now, the air was getting chillier and it made Felix remember every time the wind blew that he really should’ve brought a jacket. Apparently his shivering didn’t go unnoticed by Changbin, even though he was really trying to hide it.

“Hey, are you cold?” Changbin asked, stopping in his tracks.

“Oh I’m okay, I should’ve brought a jacket or something, but it’s not unbearable,” Felix answered.

“Here, take my jacket,” Changbin said, already taking it off.

“No no! That’s okay. I really don’t need it!”

“You’re shivering Felix, plus I’m the one who dragged you out here in the first place. It’s the least I could do.”

Changbin seemed insistent, so Felix didn’t protest any more. Changbin slid the leather jacket around his shoulders slowly, as if he was hesitant. Felix felt Changbin’s touch on his arms through the jacket and willed his brain not to freak out. The jacket was a little short on him, but it was cozy and warm.

“Thank you.” Felix said with a smile while hugging his arms around his chest. “I’m very warm now.”

Changbin mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like the word cute before he turned away.

“Hey uh, I actually think there’s a twenty-four coffee shop around here. I’m kind of a coffee addict, so when I heard about it, I had to try it. Do you want to go grab something?” Changbin asked.

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

“Cool, let me just bring up navigation on my phone. Oh sweet, we’re just around the corner.” 

Felix followed Changbin to where the GPS led them and eventually, they saw a small building in the distance.

_ Wow, he wasn’t kidding. We literally were around the corner. _

“This is it!” Changbin said as they stood outside of a shop that read “Insomnia Coffee.” 

“I actually go here all the time, it’s only the first week and I’ve probably stopped in five times already. I’m a bit of an insomniac myself,” Changbin continued as the bell chimed and they walked inside.

Felix looked around. There was only one other person sitting in the corner of the shop with a textbook. The place was painted in warm tones and there were signs with cheesy coffee slogans like, “May your mornings be brew-tiful” and “Espresso yourself” on the walls. Felix thought it was a good size even though it looked really small from the outside. It could probably seat around forty people. There are booths along the wall and tables taking up the majority of the floor space. A counter runs across the front of the store with a display case containing assorted pastries. Oooh he’d definitely have to come back and try those.

A bored-looking guy with caramel colored hair stood at the counter. Felix looked down at his nametag as they approached. “Donghyuck,” interesting. 

“What can I get you?” Donghyuck said with a tone as bored as his facial expression suggested.

“Can I get an americano with sugar please?” Changbin said with confidence. Felix assumed that’s what he always orders.

“Felix, what do you want?” 

“Oh um, wait you’re not paying for me!” Felix replied frantically.

“Don’t worry about it,” Changbin said, waving him off.

“No, I can’t let you do that. You already let me borrow your jacket!”

“It’s no problem really. You can pay next time.” Changbin said.

The man at the counter sighed loudly in annoyance.

And since the cashier was clearly annoyed and next time sounded too good to pass up, Felix protested no further.

\--

“I can’t believe you ordered a frappuccino when you were just shivering outside,” Changbin said disbelievingly.

“Hey, I can’t do bitter coffee,” Felix replied, sipping on his frappucino happily.

“Enough about my weird drink choices, what do you actually like to do besides music?”

He learned all kinds of things about Changbin. His favorite color is black (not surprising), he plays video games in his spare time (though he’s not that good at them), he tries to make it a habit to make a meal once every week (with Jisung’s help) without burning the residence hall kitchen down, because apparently Jisung promised his mom he’d try to cook, and he works out every chance he gets (also not surprising). Felix had to stop himself from staring at his arms multiple times.

Felix told Changbin some things too, like that his favorite color was black too, that he also played video games (he was really excited about that one), he couldn’t cook to save his life (to which Changbin replied that he should come over and try to cook with him and Jisung sometime), and with a little bit of encouragement from Changbin, he revealed that he writes song lyrics is his spare time, but he’s not confident enough to share them with anyone yet.

Felix was pleasantly surprised that Changbin thought that was really cool. His eyes went wide and his mouth hung open; he was so cute it made Felix’s heart skip a beat. Changbin suggested maybe working on a song together one day because according to him, he was “shit at writing lyrics.” Felix was shocked again that Changbin had so much faith in him; he hadn’t even seen any of his writing.

It was really easy to talk to Changbin. It felt as if he was talking to an old friend. Felix wasn’t sure how long they ended up sitting and talking, but when he started to see the sun making its way above the horizon, he knew he should probably go home.

Changbin noticed Felix staring out the window and his eyes widened.

“We should probably get back, huh?” Changbin mentioned.

“Yeah, Seungmin’s probably wondering where I am,” Felix noted.

Changbin insisted on walking Felix back to his dorm first. Luckily the coffee shop wasn’t too far from campus or else they would have had to spend extra money on some kind of cab service.

When they approached Yellow Wood Hall, Felix expressed that he had a fun time, thanked Changbin again for the coffee, said goodnight, and started walking in the direction of the door.

“Wait!” Changbin said, putting one hand on Felix’s arm. Felix stopped and turned around, his eyes inquiring. “We should do this again sometime. I’m always at the studio, so if you wanted to come by and do homework, that would be cool… I mean, not cool, but we can keep each other company I guess.”

Felix’s face lit up. “I’d love to.”

“C-Cool, yeah that’s awesome. If you give me your phone number, I can send you the address.

Felix shyly handed over his phone and Changbin did the same to Felix. When they finished exchanging contact information, Changbin spoke up again.

“Well, I don’t want to keep you anymore,” he said with a dopey smile on his face, “So have a good night Felix, or I guess I should I say morning now?”

Felix couldn’t help but return his smile. “Yeah, I guess so. Have a good morning Changbin.”

As Changbin took off in the direction of his dorm, Felix remembered one important detail.

He called out, “Wait! Changbin, your jacket!”

“Keep it!” Changbin yelled back barely sparing Felix another glance.

“What?! What do mean keep it?”

But Changbin only waved in response.

Which brought Felix back to where he was now. Sitting at his dorm room desk Sunday night, trying to get his reading done. Every time he read a sentence, he couldn’t help but think about Changbin’s hand in his or the jacket that was now in his closet. It felt like it was burning holes through the closet door, watching him and reminding him of his stupid crush.

_ Laundry Boy. _He can’t believe he almost gave Changbin that poem; he would’ve never been able to face him again if he had. 

Felix shuffled through the papers in his top drawer looking for it.

_ Huh, it’s not here. That’s weird, I could’ve sworn I put it in this drawer. _ He checked again through the other drawers, but still no luck.

_ I guess I must have thrown it away or something. _

\--

When Felix woke up on Monday morning, he was feeling a little more down than usual. His first class was dance, which should’ve made him excited, but ever since he walked into class the first day, he’s been dreading it.

He knew he was coming into the program with less dance experience than most people. He knew that, but walking in and seeing that gap right in front of him, made him want to turn right back around. He didn’t of course, but he always felt so drained at the end of class, and not in the good exercise way. 

And he didn’t really know, but it felt like his classmates were judging him every time he’d have to ask a question because he never learned a dance move that everyone else already knew. And when the teacher would come over and adjust his position, he felt mortified. Of course, he wasn’t the only one being corrected, but he was definitely the person that had to be corrected the most. He tried to compensate as much as he could with extra practice, but it didn’t feel like it made much of a difference.

Like he told Changbin, he came from a small town. They didn’t have many extracurricular activities besides some sports teams. He loved his ballet instructor, he really did; she was always so kind and tried to teach him what he wanted to learn, but her expertise ran out when it came to anything besides ballet or tap.

On top of dreading going to dance class, Changbin hadn’t texted him the rest of the weekend. It shouldn’t have mattered and Felix did all he could to keep him from his mind, but it proved to be very difficult when he had traces of him in his dorm. So many times the past weekend he sat in front of his phone debating whether to text him first, but Changbin said if he wanted to hang he’d text him the address. He didn’t want to seem clingy or desperate, so he restrained himself every time.

Despite everything, Felix tried to stay positive as he walked into class.

\--

Dance class was a nightmare. It was probably the worst class he’s had yet. He kept messing up all the moves, the teacher had to stop every couple minutes and help him. He was so frustrated; he just wanted to go back to his room and cry. He was the first one out of the classroom. He pushed past all the people in the hallway, apologizing as he speed-walked. He wasn’t going to cry in front of everyone; he wasn’t going to be the guy who broke down during his second week of college.

The dorm came into view in record time. It must’ve have only been ten minutes. He climbed the stairs two at a time and all but ran to his room. When he opened the door, he immediately flopped onto his bed and took his phone out.

He had a couple texts; he didn’t really feel like reading them, but he decided to check the messages just in case his mom said something important. 

As he looked through, he noticed a name pop up that he hadn’t seen since last weekend when he entered it into his phone. _ Changbin. _

He hurriedly opened the message and read it out.

**Changbin (LB): **Hey Felix it’s Changbin. Do you want to come study at the studio on Wednesday? 🤓 I reserved it for the day since I was planning to work on music stuff😎 It’d be really nice to have some company. Only if you’re not busy of course 🙀

The smile on Felix’s face grew wider until his cheeks began to hurt as his eyes scanned the message multiple times. 

When Seungmin walked in, Felix would swear up and down that he did not squeal, thank you very much.

**Felix: ** Yeah, I think I’m free 😊 

“Soooo, how’s your little Laundry Boy love affair going? I assume by whatever inhuman noise just came out of your mouth, it’s going well?” Seungmin asked with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“For your information, there is no ‘love affair.’ We _ might _be doing homework on Wednesday; literally the least romantic thing I can think of. I should be asking you the same thing what with you and Hyunjin blatantly flirting in front of my eyes at the party. And don’t even try to say it wasn’t flirting again,” Felix replied with newfound confidence seeing Seungmin’s chagrin.

“Fine, maybe he was being flirty, but that’s just his personality for the last time,” Seungmin said with hint of redness across his cheeks.

Whatever you say,” Felix said in a sing-song voice.

There were a few moments of silence before Seungmin spoke again.

“You said you’re going to study Wednesday?”

“Yeah, he invited me to come to one of the studios on campus and study.” Felix answered.

“Nice. He must really like you to invite you to hang out again so soon.” Seungmin said earnestly.

Felix sighed. “I don’t want to get my hopes up. I _ really _liked hanging out with him after the party. Too much. I’d rather not ruin it by pushing for something more. I want to be friends at least.”

“I completely get what you mean. I literally danced around Hyunjin for four years. He was friends with Changbin; we didn’t even really talk, only hung out on the rare occasions that Jisung invited me to hang out with them in a group. I’m honestly surprised that he said anything to me at the party.” Seungmin said staring off into space.

He turned back to Felix, who was listening intently.

“But you know what? I’m kind of tired of it. I’d like to think I’m different from how I was back then. I’m not saying I’m going to push for anything necessarily, but I’m sick of being afraid of something happening. If a moment’s right, I’m going to take it, whether that’s with Hyunjin or someone else.” Seungmin finished.

Felix wore a stunned expression.

“Wow, that’s really awesome Seungmin. I wish I had half your confidence.” Felix disclosed.

“I don’t have that much confidence at all. But you know what they say? Fake it ‘til you make it, right?” Seungmin smiled.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Felix said, returning his smile.

\--

Despite Felix insisting he wasn’t going to worry about the status of his relationship with Changbin, he was nervous. He’d been changing outfits for the past twenty minutes trying to find one he didn’t look completely awful in. 

Seungmin eyed the clothes thrown all over Felix’s bed before turning to Felix with an equally exasperated and concerned expression.

“Felix, you’re the one who said you guys were doing the least romantic thing ever. I promise you, Changbin does not care what you wear. He doesn’t even pay attention. One time Jisung complimented a new sweater I’d gotten and Changbin said he didn’t even realize I hadn’t worn it before...which is why I’m best friends with Jisung and not him, but that’s beside the point.” Seungmin said, his expression reflecting his annoyance.

“I knooow,” Felix whined, “but he’s so stylish. I don’t want to look like a disaster.”

“Felix, you never look like a disaster. You look good in whatever you wear, and I’m not saying that just to make you feel better. Plus, Changbin literally only ever wears black. At least you have some sort of variance,” Seungmin said, before glancing at the pile of clothes. “Here, just wear this plaid shirt over a t-shirt and some jeans and you’re good to go.” 

“Okay, okay,” Felix said before changing again for the nth time.

“Okay, now breathe. Say this with me, ‘Changbin is an idiot.’” Seungmin deadpanned.

Felix’s serious expression morphed into a fit of giggles.

“Now get out of here,” Seungmin said, grinning.

As Felix walked out, he was reminded of how thankful he was to have Seungmin as his roommate and friend. Seungmin was always calm whereas Felix was always panicking about something. They balanced each other out and cheered each other up when one felt down. As he walked towards the address Changbin sent, he was filled with newfound confidence remembering that Seungmin (and Changbin apparently) believed in him, even if it was for different reasons.

Felix roamed through the halls of the music building until he found Room 1125 and knocked on the door. 

A muffled voice that sounded like Changbin told him to come in.

Felix entered into a small studio space with wooden floors containing a piano, guitar, and small mixing board. Changbin was sitting with his laptop on his lap and the mixing board at his feet.

“Hey Felix! Take a seat wherever; there’s a chair in the corner over there,” Changbin said, looking up at him briefly.

“Nah, that’s alright I’ll just sit on the floor,” Felix replied with an easy smile.

He put down his bag and pulled out his music textbook. 

“What are you working on?” He asked Changbin, who was looking intently at his laptop, brows furrowed.

Changbin looked up. “Just trying to test out new functions with the mixing board that my professor showed us on Monday.”

“Ah, sounds interesting,” Felix replied, though he wasn’t really sure what that entailed. He wasn’t familiar with the components of making music, just how to dance to it.

“Yeah, it is,” Changbin said absentmindedly. 

After a few minutes, he spoke up again. “Anyway, sorry, I’m not trying to ignore you. How is your week so far?” Changbin looked up and smiled at Felix.

His heart sped up a little at the sudden attention. 

“Not too bad. My math professor has already started to pile on the homework though,” Felix said with a groan.

“Really? Damn. I haven’t had too much to do yet, so I’ve been spending most of my time in here. It’s quiet, so it’s pretty easy to get work done because Jisung doesn’t know the meaning of the word quiet, and it has the equipment I need to make a song.” Changbin gestured around the room.

“That’s really cool! How do you do it?” Felix asked, intrigued.

“Well, usually I just...you said you like Kpop right? What’s your favorite Kpop group?” Changbin inquired, changing his train of thought halfway through.

Felix turned away from Changbin’s gaze, a light blush dusting his cheeks. “You can’t laugh okay?” 

Changbin smiled at Felix’s sudden shyness. “Of course not, you have my word.” Changbin mimed crossing his heart over his chest.

_ Oh jeez. _He’s probably expecting to hear some big name boy group or at least a group known for powerful dancing. This is it, this is where Changbin starts seeing him for the lame person he is.

“It’s actually, uh Twice.” Felix answered still looking down, before raising his head to peek up at Changbin when he was met with silence.

Felix could’ve sworn Changbin was blushing a bit as well. Changbin seemed to snap himself out of whatever reverie he was having and stuttered through his next sentence, “O-Oh Twice is a great group!”

“How about we recreate Dance The Night Away? Changbin said, moving on quickly, “So to start, let me try and find the chords online, then I can play a little bit of it on the piano.” Changbin said, recovering from the awkward state he was in. 

Felix stood up from his spot on the ground and moved over to watch what Changbin was doing. He had some kind of music program up on his computer, but switched to looking up music for Dance The Night Away.

“Alright so I’ll play a little of the chorus part here,” Changbin said, turning around to the piano behind him.

Sure enough, Changbin began slowly playing the iconic trumpet part (or was it horn? Felix never claimed to be an expert on instruments) of the chorus. He played through it a couple times, presumably to get the rhythm down. Felix didn’t need to be a music production major to know that Changbin picked it up relatively fast.

Felix glanced back down at Changbin’s laptop. 

“You read music?” He asked incredulously.

“Yeah, it’s kind of required for my major.” Changbin smiled with pride.

“Okay, so I think I got it down. Now, be as silent as you can while I record it real quick,” Changbin said gesturing to his mouth.

Felix remained quiet as he saw Changbin’s computer record what Changbin played.

“Okay, now-” Changbin said turning back around in his chair, “let me morph this to be as close to the original as possible.

Felix watched with fascinated interest as Changbin messed around with settings he couldn’t even hope to describe until the sound coming through the speakers sounded more like the original.

“Now, let me add a simple drum beat underneath it. We don’t need to record this one, it’s pretty easy to find,” Changbin mentioned, looking down at his computer intently.

“Annnddd there we go! It’s not going to sound exactly like the original, but it should be pretty close. Here, let me hook it up to this speaker,” Changbin said, indicating to a pretty large speaker sitting in the corner. Felix hadn’t even noticed it was there.

Felix helped Changbin pull it over and he plugged it in his laptop.

Soon enough, the beat Felix has heard too many times to count floated through the room. Of course, it was much more simplified, but Felix was astonished nonetheless.

“Wow, you’re incredible! That’s so cool!” Felix complimented genuinely.

“Ah it’s nothing really. Just imitating what’s already out there,” Changbin said with a shy smile.

“Still…” Felix remarked.

Felix couldn’t help it. When he heard a beat he liked, he couldn’t help but move. He started tapping his foot. He was itching to do the dance, but he really didn’t want to embarrass himself more than he already had.

“Hey, do you know this dance?” Changbin asked, a little hesitantly.

“Yeah, but-” Felix started, but he was cut off.

“Teach me?” Changbin said, his tone somewhere between questioning and suggesting.

Felix went silent for a minute, not expecting that question.

“Okay, um sure. Stand up and let’s move some of this stuff out of the way.” Felix said. He might’ve sounded calm outwardly, but his heart was beating a mile a minute. 

Only when Changbin stood next to him, waiting for Felix to start, did he begin to talk again.

“It’s actually really easy,” Felix smiled, “So first, you’re going to put your arms up like this in succession four times while walking forward. Here let me show you.” Felix proceeded to do the first four steps of the chorus, trying not to focus on Changbin’s eyes on him.

“Okay…” Changbin said hesitantly and tried to imitate what Felix had just done. He was a little shaky, but it wasn’t too bad.

“Good! Now we’re going to stand on one foot and kick with the one in the air downwards while crossing and uncrossing our arms,” Felix demonstrated again.

Changbin looked at him, confusion written on his face before attempting to copy Felix again.

Felix couldn’t help it. He started laughing. Changbin just couldn’t seem to figure out how to coordinate his arms and legs together.

“Yah, you’re allowed to laugh at me, but I can’t laugh at you?” Changbin complained, feigning anger. 

Felix wasn’t too worried about him being upset once he noticed Changbin couldn’t hold back his laughs either and the pout on his lips was way too cute.

“Sorry, sorry. I couldn’t help it, you looked like a fish,” Felix said trying to catch his breath.

“Stop making fun of me and teach me then!” Changbin said exasperatedly, smile never making its way off his face.

They continued learning the moves for a while, Felix moving and correcting Changbin’s arms when he wasn’t sure what to do (both of them laughing too loud in between), and soon enough he taught him the whole chorus.

“Alright, are we ready to do this with music?” Felix asked, looking at Changbin.

“You’re the teacher. Do you think I’m ready?” Changbin asked, grinning teasingly.

“Let’s get it,” Felix responded, walking over to Changbin’s laptop to start up the music again.

Once they went through the chorus a couple times, Changbin convinced Felix to show him the whole song.

He felt so nervous, but he managed to get through the dance without any mishaps.

He was met with Changbin’s overwhelming applause and Felix couldn’t help the bright smile that made its way across his face.

“Stop, it wasn’t all that much. This dance isn’t even that difficult!” Felix said trying to wave Changbin off. 

“I knew you were good,” Changbin said more quietly, smiling back at Felix.

Just like in the hallway the first time they met, time seemed to freeze for a few seconds…

They both searched each other’s eyes, looking for what, Felix wasn’t entirely sure.

...until Felix remembered he had class at five. 

“Oh shit! What time is it?” Felix exclaimed suddenly.

“Uhh 4:40, why?” Changbin asked.

“Sorry! I have class at five. I gotta run,” Felix said while packing his stuff back up quickly, “I had a lot of fun though, I’d love to hang out again.”

“Yeah, me too. I’ll let you know when I have the studio reserved again.” Changbin said, not really sure what to do to help.

As Felix picked up the last of his stuff, he mind raced with how to say goodbye. He didn’t want Changbin to think he wanted to leave. He finally settled on one option. He pulled Changbin in for a quick hug before he rushed out the door.

“Bye! I’ll see you!” Felix said without looking back.

When he finally sped into class right before it started, he spent the whole period cursing how awkward he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any and all feedback is appreciated! I love to hear what ya'll think!
> 
> Come yell at me on Twitter about anything @whynothavefun16


	5. Hyunjin's Small Problem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! It's been a while, but we're back in action!  
I hope you guys didn't all lose interest :(
> 
> To be honest, the news with Woojin sent me into a bad place for a while, then school came at me, then the holidays, then school again.
> 
> But now I'm really happy to get back to writing. I really missed it.
> 
> Please enjoy! I enjoyed writing it :)
> 
> And as always, thanks to Liz, my queen, for proofreading.

Hyunjin was annoyed and for once it wasn’t with Jisung or his grades or his parents. It was with himself. He didn’t really do much for the rest of the weekend after the party. He had a major hangover which left him with a pounding headache and on and off nausea for most of the day. Needless to say he wasn’t too up for going out Saturday even though he normally would. He had his mind on somebody else. Kim Seungmin.

Hyunjin remembered fondly back to their walk home the other night. To be honest, he didn’t really remember much. He was way more trashed than he’d like to admit. But he was laying on Seungmin’s shoulder...he was so warm...and his eyes would light up when he smiled. In his sweater, looking so out of place at the lamest party he’d ever been to. He was so cute. Had he always been that cute? He attempted to remember back to high school. The few times Hyunjin would see him, he always had a book in his hand and glasses perched on his nose- the spitting image of a teacher’s pet. He remembered him as the boy who stood in the background always using strange words that he never knew, and that he wanted to be an English teacher. He remembered he was usually quiet, but would suddenly raise his voice to chastise Changbin with slightly furrowed brows, coming off as more of a cross parent than a student. He remembered the way Seungmin would look down, flushed cheeks when Hyunjin caught him looking.

_Yeah, I guess he was always that cute._ Hyunjin was just preoccupied at the time. He had figured out he was pansexual during his second year of high school and decided to use every moment he had to explore that. He also figured out that being drunk made making out with random people a lot more fun. Seungmin never went to any of the parties he was at. Would he have made out with Seungmin if he had? Probably, but high school Hyunjin would’ve gotten with anybody he could. College Hyunjin has higher standards. He shuddered remembering the people he had hooked up with back in high school. Like Hwang Yeji who shoved her tongue so far down his throat he could taste what she had for breakfast that day. Or Wong Yukhei who knocked his head against the wall so hard, he almost passed out. And that was the day he decided he would be the one doing the shoving from now on.

Hyunjin actually found himself at his desk Sunday morning doing homework, something he usually left for ten minutes before class started (or got the answers from one of his classmates). He even got it all done before three p.m.. Maybe meeting up with Seungmin was having an effect on him. At least his study habits seemed to be.

Now, he was laying in bed scrolling through various social media before remembering something he must’ve forgotten from that night. He told Seungmin they’d hang out again, didn’t he? Well, what’s stopping him from doing that right now?

He quickly brought up Seungmin’s contact in his phone.

Hyunjin: hey its Hwang Hyunjin :) are you busy right now?

Now to play the waiting game. It had been a while since he’d done this, actually really wanting someone to text back. He didn’t necessarily know what he was anticipating or what he expected to get from all this; he just knew he wanted to see Seungmin again.

He just wrapped up eating dinner when his phone lit up with Seungmin’s name again.

Seungmin 🤓: Sorry for the late response. I’ve actually been finishing some homework up until this point. I’m free next at 2pm tomorrow after my class. Why?

Hyunjin smiled seeing the punctuation perfectly in check.

Hyunjin: Id promised wed hang out right? I can meet you at the cafe down the street from school at like 2:30 does that work for you?

Seungmin 🤓: That works for me… if you want to.

Hyunjin: Yeah of course see ya tomorrow :)

He was curious. There has to be more to Kim Seungmin than good grades and a cute face. Hyunjin became excited at the prospect of finally figuring out what Seungmin was all about.

\--

The morning of his and Seungmin’s little get-together, Hyunjin slept through his liberal arts class and found himself waking up less than an hour before they were supposed to meet. He’d probably never rushed so much in his life when he realized he could be late. There were a few things he knew about Seungmin and one was that he was always early. As he threw on a black t-shirt, jeans, and his favorite black hat, he racked his brain to come up with less lame excuses than he overslept. _Changbin had an emergency outfit crisis and I had to come over to help. Nah, that wouldn’t take long enough… And Jisung stopped and yelled at me on the way out because I woke him up. Yeah okay, that’s a little more realistic._ Worst case, he could always flirt his way out of it.

Despite his slight panic this morning, he only ended up about five minutes late. When he arrived at the cafe on campus, he saw Seungmin from across the room; Hyunjin almost got a sense of deja vu before he realized the place he was in now was significantly less dark and smelly than where he was before. Seungmin was wearing a baby pink cardigan this time over a white shirt and a pair of ripped, faded jeans. He was sitting at a table in the back looking at his phone, but periodically looking up and peering out the window on his left. He figured he shouldn’t keep someone that cute waiting any longer.

“Hey! I hope you weren’t waiting long,” Hyunjin exclaimed walking towards the table and holding his arms out.

Seungmin’s face looked confused for a second before he broke out into a smile. He stood up and took the hint, falling into Hyunjin’s arms for a brief hug.

“Hey, it’s alright. I actually came here a little early to get some homework done. How are you?” Seungmin asked as he gestured to the seat across from him and sat down.

“Pretty good, how are you?” Hyunjin replied easily.

“Better than average, I’d say,” Seungmin said.

“Oh, anything that’s got you in a good mood?” Hyunjin questioned, curious.

Seungmin took this opportunity to look down and play with his hands. “Not particularly.”

Hyunjin’s eyes crinkled in response to the endearing habit.

“How are your classes? What are you taking?” Hyunjin continued.

That question prompted Seungmin to go off on a tangent. He seemed super excited about his education classes and Hyunjin could tell he was truly passionate about what he wanted to do. He kind of reminded him of something; he just couldn’t put his finger on it.

Seungmin continued on about a story involving his first day of Educational Psychology class where apparently his teacher showed up late and he didn’t know what to do. _Hmm, he’s so expressive._ His face lights up so much and he waves his arms when he’s happy and then just now, his face dropped. _Wait I know what it is-_

“A dog!” Hyunjin yelled suddenly, snapping his fingers.

“What?” Seungmin said, red in the face from Hyunjin’s sudden outburst.

Hyunjin looked around and when he noticed eyes from the surrounding tables on them, concluded he must have said that out loud.

“Oh shit, sorry,” Hyunjin started lowering his voice significantly, “I was just thinking that when you talk, you kind of look like a puppy,” he finished, smiling sweetly.

“O-oh okay,” Seungmin stuttered, finding an interesting spot on the table to study, “Sorry, I feel like I’m doing all the talking, how are your classes?” He asked after a beat.

“So my liberal arts and history class are boring as hell, but my two dance classes… those are pretty fun!” Hyunjin answered excitedly.

Seungmin looked up with curiosity, “What kind of dance classes do you take?”

“Right now I’m taking choreography and music theory which isn’t _technically_ dance-related, but it’s more music-related than anything else I’m in so I at least enjoy some aspects of it, like the stuff about timing because that’s related to dance, but I really wish we didn’t have to do so much old music. I’m not really into that because I’m not so great at dancing to it, but I guess you have to take the small victories.”

He looked up at Seungmin who was wearing a look of slight surprise.

_Oh shit. I was rambling wasn’t I? He probably thinks I’m one of those people that never shuts up._

_...Wait, since when did I care about any of that?_

“Sorry I was rambling a little bit wasn’t I?” Hyunjin said, awkwardly giggling.

“No, not at all. I forgot how much you liked to talk about dancing,” Seungmin said with a warm smile, “That’s your major right?”

“Yeah, it is,” despite bringing the confidence back in his voice, he still felt his cheeks warm up a little.

_This is so unlike me. Why am I getting nervous all of a sudden?_

Seungmin speaks up again, taking on a teasing tone, “What’s this? _The_ Hwang Hyunjin, the epitome of popularity and confidence, getting nervous? I’d never thought I’d see the day.”

“Okay, okay you win this one Kim Seungmin,” Hyunjin laughed, regaining his composure, “But I seem to remember flustering you quite a few times back in high school.”

After taking in Hyunjin’s side smile, Seungmin responded confidently, “I’m not the same as when I was in high school.”

\--

“Jeongin, he said he isn’t the same as he was in high school, what does that mean?” Hyunjin spoke over the speaker.

“Who is this again?” Jeongin asked exasperatedly.

“Are you even listening to me? I’ve been talking about this boy for the past hour!” Hyunjin yelled.

Jeongin had been one of Hyunjin’s best friends since childhood. He’d go over and play with him at his family house any chance he could and they quickly became close. His parents were away frequently as owners of their own business, so Jeongin’s house became sort of a second home for him. Since Jeongin was a year younger than him, he always treated him like a little brother. He also lived next door, so it was convenient to go over there and he had his parents’ approval because Jeongin’s family was well-off like their own. But Hyunjin never really cared about any of that stuff.

Hyunjin didn’t have many options to choose from when it came to talking about Seungmin. He couldn’t tell Changbin on the off-chance he would tell Jisung which would end up with the subject of the conversation knowing soon enough. Minho basically hated him and most of his classmates he didn’t know super well yet, which left Jeongin.

So on this fine, late night, when Hyunjin had left his laundry until the last possible second (as usual), he decided the best time to call Jeongin was during his time in the laundry room. Hyunjin knew he would have no time until the weekend to talk to his friend, because his schedule seemed to be quickly picking up the pace, so the late night laundry adventure would be the perfect time to catch up on everything. When Hyunjin walked downstairs to the laundry room, he’d found it completely empty. Even if people were there, he honestly wouldn’t have cared. They’d probably leave because he wasn’t known for being the quietest person when it came to talking on the phone.  
He decided that after he’d put his laundry in the wash, he’d call his friend. After about three repeated calls (Jeongin was notorious for not answering his phone, so Hyunjin knew if he called him repeatedly, he’d get annoyed and eventually answer), the boy finally picked up. The call began with a detailed recapping of Jeongin’s high school adventures, but when Hyunjin was asked about his college life, he had major tea to spill. He proceeded to yell at Jeongin about Seungmin (without mentioning his name, of course, because he couldn’t trust anyone); ultimately, this brought them to where they were now.

He loved Jeongin, but sometimes he could get a little sidetracked.

He heard a sigh ring out over the speaker, “Yeah I’m listening, what’s so special about him again? Last I heard you’d get with anything pretty enough to look in your direction.”

“Jeongin! That is _not_ true… and this boy’s different. He’s not like that. He hasn’t been to a party in his life. He wears cardigans, studies all day, loves his classes, like who even does that?, and has super fluffy brown hair and when he gets excited he looks like a puppy!”

He heard laughter coming from the phone.

“Wow Hyunjin, you’ve got it bad. I haven’t heard you like this-”

“Don’t say it-”

“Since-”

“I swear to God Jeongin-”

“That pothead Jung Jaehyun!” Jeongin immediately burst into another fit of giggles.

Hyunjin groaned. “Don’t remind me, that was a traumatic time in my life. And he isn’t like Jaehyun, he’s like the complete opposite of Jaehyun.”

“And even though he’s kind of quiet at times, he’s blunt too. Like sometimes when he speaks I just want to push him up against a wall and-”

“AHA!”

Hyunjin whipped around from his spot on top of one of the washing machines.

“You’re talking about Kim Seungmin you asshole!”

Upon seeing the person who happened to burst into the laundry room, Hyunjin’s expression morphed from one of shock to one of complete and utter annoyance.

“What’s going on Hyunjin?” Jeongin asked curiously.

“I’ll call you back,” he answered tiredly.

_Han Jisung._

“What do you want Han?” Hyunjin asked, taking on a ‘no-bullshit’ tone immediately. Jisung now had his arms crossed and wore a look of disgust, an expression made humorous by the fact he was puffing his cheeks out like a squirrel.

“You like Kim Seungmin!” He yelled again as if he didn’t just say the same thing two seconds ago.

“And what if I do? And can you lower your voice? It’s like one a.m., I’m sure some people are trying to sleep.” Hyunjin knew being arrogant probably wasn’t the way to go, but Han Jisung just had a way of getting under his skin no matter his original intentions.

Jisung scoffed in response. “You say that as if you weren’t yelling on speaker phone in here just a minute ago. And since you seem to have forgotten, Seungmin is _my_ best friend therefore I could tell him everything you just said, and any other choice words I may want to add, right now,” Jisung pulled out his phone from his pocket and made to dial it.

“Okay! Okay,” Hyunjin said frantically, “I get it, but despite what you may be thinking, I actually don’t have any bad intentions.”

Jisung cocked his eyebrow dramatically, “Why should I believe that?”

“Because think about it, if I did, I could’ve just gotten with him back in high school.”

“You’re saying Seungmin would have the audacity to get with a low-life like you in high school?!”

Hyunjin took a deep breath. _As much as I want to scream at him right now, I have to hold my composure or else this information will get to Seungmin faster than I can walk back to my room._

“You know that’s not what I meant.” He let out an exasperated sigh. “What do I have to do to make you keep this a secret?”

When the words left his mouth, Jisung dropped his facade and he smirked.

“See? I knew you would come to your senses,” Jisung said cockily.

“Cut the bullshit Jisung, I don’t have time for this,” Hyunjin responded keeping the same bored, exasperated expression he’d worn this entire interaction.

“There is one thing you could do to make us even. You know your roommate, Minho?”

“Yes, I fucking live with him.”

“Well, I like him and I want _you_ to invite me over so I have an excuse to see him. _And_ you can’t let him know we hate each other! That would ruin it and he’d figure out I’m just coming over to flirt with him. Since I’m feeling extra generous and I guess this is a little more involved on your end than mine...I’ll invite you to group activities so you have opportunities to hang out with Seungmin but be warned, I will be watching you like a hawk,” Jisung finished making the hand motion from his eyes to Hyunjin.

“So you’re basically saying you want us to pretend to be friends just so you can come over and gawk at my roommate? And in exchange you’ll invite me to hang out sometimes. And all of this just for you to keep my original secret?”  
Jisung nodded resolutely in response.

Hyunjin sighed again. _What a load of bullshit just to appease Jisung. Unfortunately, I don’t think I have many other options. Oh well, at least I’ll get to hang out with Seungmin more. What did I say before? Small victories._

“Okay fine,” Hyunjin responded after contemplating for a minute.

“But- wait you said fine? Perfect! I knew we could come to a mutually beneficial agreement. Now I must take my leave because unlike you, I actually go to class.”

And with that, Hyunjin watched Jisung spin on his heel, trip on the doorway on the way out, then resolutely walk up the stairs.

_He does realize he’s going to have to walk up four flights of stairs right? Idiot._

At that moment, the dryer rang signaling the end of the cycle. It was almost two a.m.. Hyunjin sighed for the nth time. He only got to do one load of laundry. Oh well, there was always tomorrow. At least he had some clothes to wear. As he walked through the doorway of the laundry room to get to the elevator, he noticed a basket of clothes sitting off to the side. He recognized the hoodie sitting on top as Jisung’s.

_That idiot brought his clothes down, yelled at me, and then forgot to take them back up with him… I guess I could drop them off in front of their room since it’s on my way. Ugh the things I do for Seungmin._

\--

Later that week, Hyunjin’s first choreography project was due. Hyunjin realized this fact the day before and quickly ran to Changbin’s room.

The project was meant to showcase his own style so Hyunjin wasn’t too worried about it. If he forgot anything, he could always freestyle and get away with it; the professor hadn’t known them for very long yet and wouldn’t be able to call him out on his bullshit. But still, he’d feel better having Changbin look over something than going in with nothing. Again, he considered asking Minho, but after their interaction about the alcohol the other day...and Jisung waking him up in the morning, he really didn’t want to bother him again. At least for a while anyway.

As soon as he made it to the door, he knocked loudly and yelled, “Changbin, let me in! I need you to look over something for class!”

His response came not even a second later in a purposefully high-pitched, raspy voice.

“What makes you think I’m qualified to look over your schoolwork?”

“It’s dance homework!” Hyunjin yelled back through the door.

“What makes you think I’m qualified to look over dance homework?” Changbin yelled back, his voice getting even more high-pitched and obnoxious-sounding.

Hyunjin sighed in mock exasperation, “Because you know music and you’re my friend and you love me!”

The door swung open in front of him and Hyunjin was met with Changbin’s smiling face.

“I guess that’s true,” Changbin said in his normal tone of voice.

As they walked over to sit on Changbin’s bed, Hyunjin explained the assignment and how he procrastinated until the last minute like usual.

“You sound like Jisung,” Changbin laughed.

“Ugh, don’t remind me. By the way, where is Jisung?”

“He has class right now, why?”

Hyunjin’s mind floated back to the events of a couple nights ago. Jisung and his stupid deal.

“No reason!” Hyunjin said quickly.

Changbin gave him a weird look in response, but didn’t question him further.

“Alright, let’s see what you got,” Changbin continued gesturing to Hyunjin to begin dancing.

\--

After about an hour of Changbin giving his own insight on what type of dance fit the music and Hyunjin talking about his first couple weeks of classes, Hyunjin felt ready enough to perform something for his class tomorrow.

Before he left, he remembered that he hadn’t seen Changbin at all after the mess of a party they all went to._ Haha! The perfect time to confront him about it._  
“By the way, where did you go after the party a couple Fridays ago? Even drunk me missed you,” Hyunjin finished with a giggle.

“Oh, well I um- actually left early and went on a walk…” Changbin said, looking down at his hands.

_Bullshit. Not that Changbin makes it very hard to see through. He’s so cute. Also he’s nervous, interesting. Could it be perhaps, a boy?_

“Changbin, you did not ditch me to go on a walk in this cold-ass weather, now tell me actually. What did you actually do or more likely, who were you with?”

Changbin looked up in slight alarm.

“How’d you know?”

_Hmm because my relationship senses are impeccable. And you wouldn’t just leave without telling me._

Those were the real reasons, but Hyunjin went with, “Because you love me and you wouldn’t ditch me to go walk around the neighborhood like a loser,” instead.

“I don’t know whether to be offended or not,” Changbin said incredulously. Hyunjin saw a small smile making it’s way on to his face. “So Seungmin’s roommate, his name is Felix, I met him the other day and we kind of clicked, so I asked him if he wanted to take a walk.”

“Ooh I think I met him actually! Cutie with the freckles right?” Hyunjin clapped his hands excitedly.

“Yeah, that’s him…” Changbin said trailing off, staring into space.

Hyunjin was a little surprised. Changbin didn’t like just anyone. He always kept to himself and was pretty shy around new people. It took Hyunjin months to get him to come out of his shell. So the fact that he was already talking to someone within the first couple weeks, that boy must be more than just a pretty face. Also Changbin invited him to take a walk on his own accord? Impressive. He was proud.

“Wow Changbin. I haven’t seen you like this since…” Hyunjin thought for a moment, but came up blank, “Like ever! Did you throw any winning pick up lines at him?”

“What the hell are you talking about Hyunjin, I don’t know how to flirt!” Changbin yelled.

The sudden outburst sent Hyunjin into a fit of giggles, which eventually also made Changbin start laughing.

“Yah, stop laughing!” Changbin shouted after their laughter had mostly died down.

“Changbin, flirting is easy. You just have to touch his arm a little, lean towards him when he talks, throw in a sultry look every now and again,” Hyunjin said demonstrating.

Changbin just hit him and looked away. “Yeah yeah, whatever Mr. Hooks up with someone every week.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that I have not hooked up with anyone since classes started! I have my eyes on one man at the moment,” Hyunjin said dramatically.

Changbin raised his eyebrows suspiciously, “Yeah? And who is that?”

“Can’t tell,” Hyunjin winked.

“You’re literally so annoying,” Changbin rolled his eyes.

“Anyways, I’ve got to go. I promised I’d meet up with one of my dance classmates and listen to them complain about their girlfriend or something, I honestly don’t know. But I’m taking this opportunity to have a social life. I have to build everything from the ground up again man,” Hyunjin smiled.

“Alright, I’ll see you later then,” Changbin smiled back and showed him out the door.

\--

When tomorrow did swing around and it was Hyunjin’s time to perform, he was met with a lot more attention than he’d originally thought he’d receive. Although, he can’t say he disliked it. About ten people came up to him after class saying things like “hey can you teach me that one move?” or “hey dude, we should hang out one time.” He got _a lot_ of party invites too.

_I guess the stuff with Minho really did get to me. I’ve started to miss having more people to talk to. Okay, this weekend is when college starts for real. I’m finally starting to feel like myself again._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> Any feedback at all is appreciated, I love reading comments!
> 
> @whynothavefun16 on Twitter. Come talk to me :)


	6. Jisung and Minho (and Hyunjin's) Impromptu Study Date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...hi
> 
> It's been a while! I am so incredibly sorry I haven't updated this fic in months. It's so close to my heart and I am going to finish it. I've had this outlined for a year, I'm committed. I know some of you really loved this and it warmed my heart because I enjoy writing this. With all the problems with "he who shall be not named" I made some edits to previous chapters. I'm so excited to continue this story and I hope those who were waiting didn't wander too far. I'm hype for ya'll to see where this goes!
> 
> And Liz my rock, my love, the ground beneath my feet, thank you for being my number 1 supporter and editor <3

Now, Jisung wasn’t going to say he was a genius per se because he was a very humble guy. Buuut, he may have had a genius idea that he put into action, on the spot, with minimal planning... so he might be a bit of a genius.

He had been on his way to do laundry himself when he heard a familiar voice coming from the laundry room. As soon as he realized it was none other than Hwang Hyunjin (being obnoxiously loud at this hour he might add), he promptly rolled his eyes and made to go back up the stairs, intending to do his laundry another night. But when he was leaving, he happened to hear a small snippet of a description of someone which sounded suspiciously like his sweater-clad, super smart, stubborn best friend. He quickly set his laundry down and maneuvered himself so his back was against the wall right next to the entrance to the laundry room. He made sure to close his eyes so he could use his ears to his full ability, because what the hell could Hyunjin want with his best friend? Was he making fun of him behind his back? He wouldn’t put it past that bastard to make fun of Seungmin to all of his popular friends. The real answer was not one that he considered. As soon as the conversation turned a little too 18+ for his liking, he jumped out and confronted him. He even used the word Seungmin taught him last week, “audacity,” so needless to say he was more than a little proud of himself.

The reason he made the negotiation he did was because well, his attempts to woo Hyunjin’s beautiful roommate, Minho were going how should he say? Not the best. The first time he saw Minho after the classroom incident went as follows:

He walked into class having fully mentally prepared himself to be as smooth and charming as he ever was. He was going to flip that lame initial impression Minho probably got of him on its head. No more stuttering through sentences when talking to hot guys like he did in high school. Maybe drop that he’s a music production major and the name of his SoundCloud.

His plan instantly went to shit when two minutes before class started, Minho tapped him on the shoulder while he was drinking and he let out a sound akin to a choke and screech at the same time.

As Jisung continued to cough Minho spoke with amusement evident on his face, “Sorry, are you okay? I didn’t mean to scare you.”

When Jisung finally caught his breath, he responded, “I’m okay, I think,” looking up with slight annoyance. Was it pathetic to say that his anger instantly melted when he saw that beautiful face smiling at him?

“But what did I say about sneaking up on me? I’m a sensitive soul,” Jisung said with a pout before looking around the large classroom to see just how much his classmates were judging him. Okay, it looks like everyone had gone back to setting up for class.

“I don’t know, if I keep getting this kind of reaction, I might have to continue,” Minho said with a cheeky smile.

Oh God, his heart did a thing. Jisung had to be giving him “the eyes” right now, but he couldn’t stop.

Minho’s face eventually morphed into one of confusion then slight disdain at Jisung’s lack of response before taking the seat next to Jisung.

_Get a grip!_ Jisung internally slapped himself before trying to continue some kind of conversation. “So you said you were a dance major right?”

“Yeah I focus on hip-hop mostly, but I do some contemporary as well,” Minho said lazily while getting his laptop and notebook from his bag.

“That’s cool man. I wish I could dance,” Jisung stared off wistfully, “You know, I’m a music production major, so you’d think I’d have picked up some kind of rhythm, but every time I try I end up flat on my face. Maybe you could teach me sometime?”

Jisung mentally slapped himself for the use of “man.” But I saved it with a date opportunity._ Wow what I would give right now to be a dance major and have a class with Minho and then impress him with my dancing and have him fall in love with me._

“If I had a penny for every time someone said that,” Minho grimaced, not even looking back at him.

_Shit. This wasn’t the way this was supposed to go. Change the subject._

“So I’ve kind of been struggling to find some things to do around here because this is my first year. I can’t go to the cat cafe I used to anymore! I’m too far from my house. Honestly, that’s probably been the worst part about moving to college so far; that place was my go-to,” Jisung complained.

Minho turned to him, a glimmer of interest in his eyes.

“You like cats?”

Jisung became excited at the prospect of Minho finally listening to what he was saying, “Well yeah, who doesn’t?! They’re soft and cute and snuggly and even if they ignore you can’t help but love them because they’re so majestic!” he finished waving his hands around excitedly.

At that moment, their professor decided to start the class with a much too loud ‘good morning!’ for this hour.

His attention was soon shifted back to Minho when he heard him speak in a lowered voice, “I actually frequent a cat cafe around here. You could say I’m a bit of a celebrity there. The cats all swarm me as soon as I come in,” a soft smile gracing his face by the end.

Jisung felt his cheeks heat up at the thought of Minho surrounded by a bunch of cats and eagerly petting them all.

From there he tried to pay attention to the lecture, but Minho insisted on making snide comments throughout the class:

“So no Buzzfeed quizzes this time?” (No, that was a special occasion.)

“Not taking notes? I didn’t realize you were a genius at math too.” (He’s not, he’s just selective about which notes he takes.)

You know, you kind of remind me of the kittens I babysit, they never seem to pay attention unless something’s right next to them,” at which moment Minho leaned over until he was whispering right into his ear, causing Jisung to jump. (He just angrily huffed at that, blush high on his cheeks.)

By the time class was over, Jisung was thoroughly out of ideas for impressing Minho. He wasn’t expecting him to be so (Jisung would wave his arms around later as he tried to convey this to Changbin) interesting, frustrating, and cute all at once.

\--

The following classes had gone similarly with Jisung trying to get some lines in and Minho either shutting him down or saying something that would fluster him beyond recovery.

Hearing Hyunjin lusting over his best friend was really a blessing in disguise. He needed to talk to Minho in a place that wasn’t a classroom setting. Then he could speak freely without the threat of glaring classmates or a strict professor.

Speaking of Hyunjin, he wasn’t really sure where he stood on the whole “wanting to get with Seungmin'' agenda. On one hand, he hated Hyunjin’s guts and _definitely_ didn’t think Hyunjin was the least bit worthy to date his best friend. He wasn’t even sure if that was what Hyunjin intended in the first place. On the other hand, Seungmin was his best friend and he is more than capable of taking care of himself. And despite Seungmin trying to hide it from him (presumably due to his disdain for Hyunjin), Jisung has always sort of known about Seungmin’s crush on him.

Jisung sighed. At the moment, he couldn’t really be against it anyway; he made a deal for better or for worse. He had to stick with it for now.

\--

Perhaps he needed Hyunjin’s services a little sooner than he originally suspected. He must be off his game or something. No matter what he tried, Minho just wouldn’t bite. Any attempts at flirting, Minho completely brushed off as if Jisung had just asked him the weather. Hanging out? Minho always seemed to be too busy. Number? Before Jisung would even ask, Minho would give a look so intimidating that he didn’t dare.

**Jisung:** hey

**Hyunjin:** what do u want

**Jisung:** So I may have to cash in my first tikcet

**Jisung:** *ticket

**Hyunjin:** wtf r u talking about

**Jisung:** I need to come over and study 😉

**Hyunjin:** …

**Hyunjin:** when r u free

**Jisung:** tomorrow after my 12pm

**Hyunjin:** works 4 me

_Yes._

\--

“Jisung what are you doing?”

“Changbin, what side of my face looks better, this side?” He turns so his left cheek is facing Changbin, “or this side?” He turns around to the other side doing his best to make the most attractive face he possibly could, sucking in his cheeks, lowering his eyelids, and parting his lips slightly.

“Ow!” Jisung rubbed his head where Changbin hit him.

“You look like an idiot, who are you trying to impress?” Changbin grinned, rubbing Jisung’s back good-naturedly.

He sighed. “Minho. I’m going over to Hyunjin’s to study.”

He watched Changbin raise his eyebrows in disbelief.

“I thought you hated Hyunjin.”

Jisung debated telling Changbin the truth, but he knew that if he did no matter how much he begged, Changbin would end up telling someone “on accident” and ruining his plan. Plus, if Hyunjin knew, the plan would be off too...and there’s a good chance Changbin would kick his ass on top of it.

“Yeah, well we have a class together and I suck at psychology, so you put up with what you have to.” Jisung feigned exasperation, dragging out his words to make it seem like it was only a failing grade in psych that would convince him to spend time with Hyunjin.

Changbin made his way to sit on his bed and grabbed his laptop, shooting doubting glances his way. “Jisung, you once told me that you’d rather drink hot sauce through your asshole than voluntarily hang out with Hyunjin.”

“I was drunk,” Jisung replied with finality, but still unable to take the whininess out of his voice. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and took one last glance in the mirror, licking his palm and smoothing his hair down so it would look absolutely perfect. He smiled once, but frowned when he saw that his cheeks looked puffier than usual.

“Point still stands,” Changbin commented. Jisung glanced back at him, but he was already distracted by whatever was on the screen. He took it as a chance to make his escape without further questioning.

He inhaled, preparing to speak fast enough to where Changbin couldn’t understand him, “Whatever. Anyway I have to go, I’m late. See you later, don’t wait up.”

Changbin only realized Jisung had spoken when the door slammed.

“J-Jisung! If you’re really that desperate just go fuck someone!” Changbin screamed. Jisung cringed as Changbin’s gravelly voice rang clearly through the closed door. He turned to the two ladies walking down the hallway who were now regarding him with stunned and mildly disgusted faces. He nodded apologetically and speed walked the thirty feet to the Hyunjin and Minho’s room. The yellow-green wallpaper flowers stared at him judgmentally as he rapped his knuckles on the door.

He heard shuffling inside followed by the sound of something hitting the ground.

“Oh shit,” he heard a voice filled with exasperation that belonged to none other than Hyunjin.

_That sounded good._

“Just a minute!” The same voice rang out from behind the door.

Jisung glanced at his phone for a few seconds before his eyes widened as the door swiftly opened in front of him.

“Hi!” Hyunjin said with his signature charming smile; Jisung didn’t have to do mental gymnastics to figure out it was largely exaggerated.

“Hi, I’m here to study psych stuff,” Jisung replied, giving his best attempt to return the enthusiasm. His whole body was sending him signals that this whole situation felt completely off and he tried his best to silence it as Hyunjin gestured him through the door.

“So how have classes been?” Jisung starts racking his brain for anything else he can comment on. He moves towards the bed and takes notice of the pile of clothes shoved under the one Hyunjin is sitting on. The room is sparse aside from an end table next to each bed where there were white lamps placed. He saw his reflection in the closet door in the corner of the room next to Minho’s bed. A black mini fridge (rich people) was at the foot of Hyunjin’s bed and polaroids of Hyunjin and Changbin together and people he presumed were Hyunjin’s family were neatly taped near his pillow. Besides the general messiness (moreso on Hyunjin’s side of the room) and plain blue and purple bed sheets on both beds, there wasn’t much to see. More importantly, nothing on Minho’s side indicated any interests or aspects of his personality whatsoever. Jisung frowned. He didn’t really know the guy yet, but it almost seemed kind of sad and strange that he had nothing there. Eh maybe he was the type to not keep many things or want anyone to know his business. Jisung couldn’t relate. The moment anyone walked into his room, they’d know he does music. The mass of headphones, speaker, and other miscellaneous wires tangled in his sheets, the sheet music covering his desk in complete disarray, and a guitar leaning on his bed… yeah, it was pretty fucking obvious. Somewhere between these thoughts, he registered that Hyunjin stopped speaking. Well, he’d never been good at paying attention anyway. He looked over at Hyunjin and raised his eyebrows.

Hyunjin shot back an unimpressed look. “I figured a minute in that you both didn’t care and weren’t listening, so I thought I’d shut up.”

Jisung tilted his head. “I’m assuming Minho's not here then?”

“Of course not. If you’d taken a moment to actually check for human beings instead of gawking at the bare walls, you would’ve realized that,” Hyunjin snapped.

“The sarcasm is not appreciated. I think you’re forgetting I could expose you with a tap of my finger.” Jisung holds his phone up threateningly to prove his point.

Mild panic flashes across Hyunjin’s eyes before they return back to “dead.”

“If you do that, I’m kicking you out now and you can kiss your chances of seeing Minho goodbye.”

_Shit. He’s right._ Jisung lets out a choked sound out of frustration. “Fine,” he turns away.

“Also I’m not going to pretend to like you when he’s not around. That involves more surface acting from me than I’d like to provide.”

“Surface acting?” Jisung tries to think back to when he’s heard someone say that before, but ultimately comes up empty.

“Yeah, when you’re forced to display an emotion you don’t actually feel. If you actually showed up to psych class you would know that.”

“Whatever. That’s why I’m here isn’t it?” Jisung shoots back.

“Why who’s here?”

Jisung hears the click of a lock before he watches the handle turn. He swears the choir singing in his head wasn’t there before. He can’t help the dopey smile that spreads across his face as his mind goes blank.

Minho proceeds to look directly past him and greets Hyunjin.

“I see you’ve brought your friend back with you.”

“Yeah,” Hyunjin says casually, “we’re supposed to be studying,” he finishes, giving a pointed look to Jisung. He feels Hyunjin’s eyes on him which forces him to tear his eyes away from Minho for a second.

“Oh y-yeah. Psychology. We’re in the same class. Well not the same class, but the same class.”

Minho finally glances at Jisung when he begins talking. “I see. How are you Jisung? Nice to see you outside of the auditorium they call a stats classroom.”

“I’m good! Great now actually. Now that I’m here. Studying…” he trails off, distracted by the curve of Minho’s jaw. How could any one man be created so perfect?

Hyunjin coughs.

“Studying stats. I mean psych!”

Then the most glorious sound hit his eardrums.

Minho honest to God, giggled. A sweet, lilting, breathy sound that he muffled in his hand.

“You better get to it then. I think if you spend any more time studying my face, you might lose what you already retained.”

He comes over and pokes Jisung’s cheek as he speaks before turning and sitting on his bed facing away from him and Hyunjin.

Jisung chances an inconspicuous look at Hyunjin who rolls his eyes and motions for him to sit on the bed.

“Feel free to make yourself at home. Do you want anything to drink?” Hyunjin smiles sweetly, his demeanor from earlier doing a complete 180.

“Depends. What do you have?”

“Umm water, Sprite, iced tea, and I think Minho has some orange soda in there if you want to ask-”

“No,” Minho says without looking up.

“Okaaay no orange soda, but anything else you’re welcome to.”

“Disappointed you don’t have Gatorade, but I’ll take a water.”

Hyunjin physically looked like he was holding himself back from punching him and Jisung thanked every god in existence that Minho was in the room. He busied himself with a thread on the blanket while Hyunjin opened his fridge.

“Here you go,” Hyunjin tossed him the water bottle with a bored tone, snapping Jisung out of his reverie. Minho looked way too attractive reading a book with his legs crossed on top on his covers.

Hyunjin stepped forward and leaned in less than a hair’s breadth from his ear.

“Open that textbook sweetheart or I’m rethinking this arrangement.”

Jisung shivers before attempting to find the chapter they went over today. Hyunjin joins him in sitting on the bed and starts writing something in a notebook.

“So, let’s go to the end of chapter 2 and go over the definitions first,” Hyunjin suggests, beginning to flip through the pages.

“Wait, no. How about we just skim through and pick them up as we go?” Jisung counters.

“Because that just makes it ten times harder. Why do you want to read first? The professor will probably only quiz us on definitions anyway.”

“Are you saying you’re only planning on memorizing and not learning anything?”

“Are you saying you’re not?” Hyunjin looks incredulous, blatantly disgusted at the fact Jisung wants to learn something from class apparently.

“Why do you even care if it’s not part of your major? You don’t-” He watches as Hyunjin glances over his shoulder towards Minho’s direction before changing his expression to one of much calmer status.

“We all learn differently-,” Jisung cringed at how fake that sounded, but was secretly glad Hyunjin changed his tone. He didn’t even want to imagine what face Minho was making. “How about we work the way we know best and come together for questions?” His eyes forcibly crinkling at the end.

“Aye aye captain,” Jisung gives a thumbs up before trailing his eyes over the chapter outline.

Despite Jisung’s best efforts, and he really was trying, he needed to pass this class to fulfill a requirement, but he wasn’t all that interested in where the cerebellum was located or what neural pathway fight-or-flight response takes. His eyes eventually wandered over to Minho’s unmoving form on the bed. He traced his eyes down the slope of his nose, appreciating the long eyelashes fanning his elegant face. Jisung’s gaze moved to his arms, trying and failing to not imagine him shirtless like the first time they met. He took some time to admire the tight jeans squeezing his thighs perfectly. He hates that he can tell Minho knows he looks good. His legs are perfectly stretched on the bed, just flexed enough where you can tell how toned his legs are. He finally made his way to his feet, still in blue socks. Of course he doesn’t know for certain, but his feet were probably nice too. He sighed and started to make his way back to the top only to find Minho already looking at him with an amused smirk.

Jisung squeaked. “How’s studying going?” Minho asked with a disinterested tone.

“Good! I think,” he really needed to stop being caught off guard. He’s never going to be smooth around Minho this way. “What are you working on?” Minho asked.

He saw Hyunjin lift his head out of the corner of his eye before focusing back in on his work.

“Anatomy and function of the brain. It’s a lot of terminology. I’m kind of bad at that type of stuff to be honest,” Jisung scratches the back of his neck.

Minho closed his book and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Yeah I always have trouble with that stuff too.” He made his way over to Jisung’s place as he talked. “What I do is make flashcards. It might seem childish, but it helps my memory.”

“I don’t know… I usually don’t do well with stuff like that. I’m more of an auditory learner.” Jisung makes room on the bed so Minho can sit. Once again, he sees Hyunjin glance up and smile at Minho faintly before moving to the other end of bed with his legs propping up his notebook.

“Ah makes sense. How about we make them together and then I’ll quiz you verbally?”

The surprise must be evident on Jisung’s face because Minho laughs.

“You’re lucky I’m feeling generous today. And there’s no way I was going to get any reading done with you burning holes into the side of my face.”

Hyunjin huffs out a laugh.

“I was _not_ burning holes into the side of your face,” Jisung whines, hitting Minho’s arm lightly.

“Sure,” he starts sarcastically, “and _you’re_ not a good producer.”

Jisung sputters. “You can’t do that! How am I supposed to refute that?”

“You’re not. Now get writing producer boy,” Minho smiles, throwing notecards at his head.

\--

This was going surprisingly well. It turned out he and Minho got along well when the latter wasn’t teasing him 24/7. They bounced off each other’s weird jokes seamlessly and had the same ideas for how to remember study material. He even found out they watched the same big cats documentary on National Geographic.

Between the sweet laughter ringing through his ears and his pounding heartbeat every time Minho playfully (and sometimes way harder than playfully) hit his arm, Jisung was actually grasping the definitions Minho was feeding him with few repetitions. By the time he had to leave, he felt ready to write all the definitions on his exam sheet faster than he could say amygdala.

Before he got up to leave, he turned to Minho with a sheepish smile, “Thank you for helping me study. You really didn’t have to.” As Minho opened his mouth to respond, Jisung rattled off one more frantic statement, “And I’m sorry about the staring! I didn’t mean to be creepy or anything; I just get a little spacey sometimes.”

Minho smiled widely. Jisung was embarrassed to admit that his breath caught in his throat a little at the action.

He settled into his usual bored expression before responding, “Don’t worry about it. I wasn’t busy today anyway.”

He gathered the flashcards and textbook into his black bag which had more pockets than he’d ever need, before flinging it over his shoulder. It’s only when he makes it to the door that he has the right mind to turn around and thank Hyunjin.

To which Hyunjin replies, “It’s no problem! Let me know if you want to come study again.”

As soon as the door creaks shut behind Jisung, he hears a _ding_ from his phone.

**Hyunjin:** your so lucky i took theater in hs bc if i had to endure 1 more min of your flirting i think i would have died

**Jisung:** rolls his eyes and gets ready to reply with something snarky before another message comes in.

**Hyunjin:** i expect to b included in your plans this weekend. whatever they may be and your inviting seungmin

Jisung sighed. _Shit._ He forgot about upholding his part of the bargain.

**Jisung:** changbin, felix, seungmin and i are meeting up for dinner on friday at 8. you in?

**Hyunjin: **wouldnt miss it ^-^

Jisung made the short trip back to his room in record time before flopping down on his bed with a dreamy sigh.

“So what kept you preoccupied for-” Changbin checked his watch, “5 hours?”

“Holy shit it’s 4:30?!” Jisung shouted sitting up in his rumpled sheets.

“Yeah it is,” Changbin said, closing his laptop and placing it next to him on his own bed.

“Honestly I just studied,” Jisung defended, thinking back to the time he spent in Hyunjin’s room.

“Yeah right,” his roommate scoffed while crossing his arms. “Hyunjin must be more diligent than I thought.” Changbin raised his eyebrow.

“Well, actually Minho helped me a lot,” Jisung couldn’t keep the grin off his face.

“There it is. I should’ve known,” Changbin gave a small smile.

“Changbin, he’s really nice! We actually had a real conversation. He likes nature documentaries and cats and he listened to me explain my horoscope when I told him I couldn’t talk about the brain stem because my reflexes were off today. You remember what I read you this morning right?”

Changbin wore an easy smile as he answered, “That you should be prepared for anything to come your way today? Yeah, I remember.”

“I’m really glad you had a great day today Jisung. I know you’re probably tired of hearing me say it, but be careful okay? You have a habit of getting hooked on people who don’t see you the same way. I just don’t want you to get hurt,” Changbin’s expression morphed to one of concern.

Jisung couldn’t blame him. Both Changbin and Seungmin weren’t strangers to his “sad boy phases” after a rejection. Jisung liked to think he bounces back fast, but the last guy he had a crush on hit him harder than usual. He really wanted a relationship in the summer before he went to college, but the guy he’d been pining for all semester took him aside and said, “Jisung, I appreciate your admiration, I really do, but I’m not into you that way.” It wasn’t the guy’s fault. He had a habit of coming on too strong. He hopes college will be different. I mean, why would an upperclassman like Minho give him the time of day if he wasn’t interested? Jisung felt his expression droop at his next thought. Unless he was just messing with him or leading him on. Of course he was messing with him; he just hoped Minho wasn’t _messing_ with him. Maybe he needs to step back from this for a little bit. He didn’t want to hope for something that would never happen.

Jisung made a resolution to make an effort to act as natural as possible around Minho. No staring, no seeking him out unnecessarily, no blatant flirting.

\--

Jisung had some free time before his afternoon class the next day, so he opened up his newest production project and decided to do some work. He shut the curtains so it was dark, but not dark enough to be pitch black. Then he put on his headphones, the sleek, black ones his parents bought him right before he left for school, so he could focus better in a new environment. He listened through what he had already. The song started on a steady hip hop beat with elements of EDM. _A nice steady baseline would go nicely there._ After a significant amount of time passed (which for him could be anywhere between twenty minutes and infinity), Jisung began to get antsy. Despite his headphones being of the noise cancelling variety, the low static hum in his ears started to irritate him. He eventually opted to take the headphones off when he wasn’t listening to the track. Except then the screech of a bird outside the window demanded his attention instead. He groaned and let the weight of his head fall to his keyboard. The error sound he got in response offered no solace to his frustration. His third attempt involved putting some zen study music in his ears while he worked, but his production was cut short when he ended up getting lost in the dreamy music rather than the song he was supposed to be creating.

He knew he’d have trouble working somewhere different. He knew, and yet, his discouragement got the better of him. He squeezed his eyes shut, once again resting his head down on the desk in front of him. He willed the tears to quit stinging his eyes, but only felt more bitterness in his stomach when they leaked onto his cheeks despite his efforts. How was he supposed to create for his classes when he couldn’t even create for himself? He’d always been envious of Changbin’s ability to effortlessly create music when the mood struck him. Changbin could sit for hours when he was inspired; so much so that his parents and Jisung himself would have to remind him to go to bed sometimes. He wanted just a fraction of that dedication and focus for once. He had to find a way to do this or he was doomed. It was at times like this that he missed his mother. She would always card her hands through his hair and tell him that he would figure it out. That he was her talented and brilliant son who loved music and he would always find a way to show the world his thoughts through his work. _Damn it._ He moved his pity party to the bed and threw the blankets over his head. He hoped sleep would take him to a better place than this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please please please leave a comment! Nothing brings me more joy than knowing someone enjoyed this train wreck because as you may remember, this started because I was inspired by my own college experience.
> 
> Also I changed my twitter handle @AlluraAllie  
Feel free to yell with me about SKZ, writing, NCT 2020, or anything else!


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